Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr has failed in his two lawsuits against the State for charging him with a murder in 2010 for which he was eventually freed.
In an oral judgment delivered at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain yesterday High Court Judge Frank Seepersad dismissed Bakr’s constitutional motion and malicious prosecution claims which he described as an “abuse of process”.
Seepersad said Bakr had failed to adduce evidence to show that his constitutional rights were infringed by Coroner Nalini Singh when she charged him and his former follower Brent “Big Brent” Miller with murder following the conclusion of a coroner’s inquest into the death of 22-year-old mechanic Israel Sammy in September 2010.
Sammy, also a former member of Bakr’s organisation, was shot dead behind his Valot Street, Boissiere Village, Maraval on May 20, 1998.
Seepersad also said Bakr provided no evidence to support his claim that Singh used a flawed process in coming to her decision, which was eventually overturned one month later when Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard said that there was insufficient evidence to sustain the charge.
“The litigant (Bakr) cannot conduct a case in an ad hoc manner hoping something would stick,” Seepersad said as he suggested that Bakr would have possibly been more successful if he had filed for a judicial review of Singh’s decision.
As part of his judgment, Seepersad order Bakr to pay the State’s legal costs for defending his claim.
The judgment comes almost exactly one year after Seepersad awarded Bakr a mere $5,000 in compensation in another malicious prosecution case against the State. In that case, Bakr was suing in relation to arms and ammunition charges which were brought against him and two of his followers after a rifle, a hand grenade and a large cache of ammunition was alleged found in the Jamaat’s Mucurapo Road headquarters.
While he ruled in favour of Bakr in that case, Seepersad only awarded the meagre compensation as he said that Bakr did not suffer more damage to his reputation than he had already from his involvement in the infamous 1990 attempted coup.
Bakr was represented by Joseph Sookoo while Jagdeo Singh appeared for the State.