Relatives of five T&T nationals detained in Venezuela on alleged terrorism charges for two years are appealing to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who will be here on Monday, to release the men.
The relatives, led by wives of two of the men, yesterday delivered a letter of appeal to this effect to the Venezuelan Embassy to give to Maduro. They will also be asking the Government to intercede for them with Maduro during his visit.
The men, Wade Charles, Dominic Pitilal, Asim Luqman, Andre Battersby and Leslie Daisley, who are of Islamic faith, were detained under anti-terrorism laws after Venezuelan intelligence agency Sebin raided their Caracas hotel rooms in March 2014.
They have been subject to court hearings in recent months, but there has been no headway in having the matter determined, attorney Nafeesa Mohammed said yesterday. She accompanied the women to the Venezuelan Embassy yesterday morning to deliver the letter, following which they delivered a similar one to the National Security minister’s adviser. The letter calls on Maduro to release the men on humanitarian grounds.
Mohammed added, “We’re also asking Government to appeal to whoever is representing T&T at Monday’s meeting with Mr Maduro to seek release of the men.”
Mohammed said the families were taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the impending visit of Maduro to T&T on Monday.
Maduro is coming for a brief hours-long visit with Government. Government officials said on Thursday he had requested to visit T&T to meet with the Government and could not outline reasons for this beyond saying it would likely continue talks on energy, trade and foreign affairs which had been ongoing between the countries. The meeting will be held at the Diplomatic Centre, the Office of the Prime Minister stated yesterday.
The families of the five men insist the men are not terrorists and have denied that they were linked to a global movement of Muslim extremists heading to Syria as jihadists. When they were arrested, Mohammed said, they had gone to Caracas to obtain visas to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the Umrah pilgrimage.
When the men were detained, representations had been made to the then People’s Partnership government, which was handling the matter via the T&T embassy in Caracas.
Yesterday, support for the families’ issue came from the Independent Liberal Party (ILP), which stated relatives of the detained men have expressed concern for their health given Venezuela’s crisis.
The ILP stated, “Relatives said the men were only recently afforded the opportunity to appear before a judge. However, when they went to court last week their case was adjourned because there was no electricity and water in the courthouse due to the crisis. Since it is unknown how long the situation in Venezuela will persist, the prospect of the men obtaining a fair hearing remains uncertain and in limbo.
“The men have also related to their families horror stories concerning shortages of meals and medication in the prison. For example, the men have stated that prisoners are not getting regular meals and some inmates have resorted to hunting vermin inside the prison in order to eat.”
The ILP said Monday's visit by Maduro provides “ample opportunity for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Foreign Affairs Minister Dennis Moses to assert the concern that should prevail for the human rights violations being perpetrated against these T&T nationals ...”
The ILP claimed Gloria Charles-John, the mother of one detainee, wants to meet Maduro to lay out her concerns.