Venezuelan authorities have dropped terrorism charges against the five T&T nationals detained there since March but they are now being charged with intent to commit espionage and to commit a crime, Islamic Front leader Umar Abdullah said yesterday.
A T&T Security official also confirmed the development last night after Abdullah told the T&T Guardian he had received word on the developments a few days ago and confirmed it with the chief counsel at T&T’s Venezuelan embassy, who said the terrorism charges were being dropped but two new charges were being instituted.
Abdullah said a decision on whether to plead guilty to that or “not guilty” will now have to be made by the men.
The men—Wade Charles, Dominic Jamal Pitilal, Asim Luqman, Andre Bathersby and Lesley Daisley —have been detained since 2014 on suspicion of terrorism. They were held at hotel Sabana Grande along with a 22-member Muslim group which went to seek visas for a pilgrimage. That group was released but they were detained.
Their families demonstrated last month when Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro met Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley for talks. Yesterday, Abdullah said latest information received was that the five appeared in court on June 7 and their lawyers subsequently had a chamber meeting with a judge in the matter.
Abdullah said he learned the maximum sentence for the two charges being proposed was about three years if the men pleaded guilty. Time served would be factored in. They have been detained for two years and three months so far. Abdullah said if they pleaded “not guilty” to the two charges they would have to go through a trial.
“My position is they should go through the trial rather than pleading guilty since pleading guilty to espionage and intent to commit a crime will stain them and even the country.
“We have no problem with how Government has handled the matter but will like a deeper examination of the situation in the context of the recent meeting with Venezuela. This does not seem to be what was agreed on. We need clarification on these developments,” he added.
Contacted yesterday, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said he was aware the Venezuelan courts were considering the matter but had not received official briefing on what had happened, if anything.
GETTING IT RIGHT
An article on Page A10 of yesterday’s paper, headlined “China/T&T medical MoU ends: Minister lobbies for continuation”, incorrectly gave Dr Agatha Carrington’s title as deputy chairman of UTT. Carrington is in fact assistant professor, health sciences at UTT. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused.