Derek Achong

Af­ter he was ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with his 2005 Eid-ul-Fitr ser­mon, Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr re­peat­ed­ly re­fused to an­swer ques­tions from in­ves­ti­ga­tors. This was re­vealed by In­spec­tor Christo­pher Hold­er when he gave ev­i­dence at Bakr's sedi­tion tri­al yes­ter­day.

In tes­ti­mo­ny be­fore the nine-mem­ber ju­ry, Hold­er said Bakr re­peat­ed­ly replied that he had no state­ment to make on the is­sue. The 25-minute in­ter­view took place at the CID's St Vin­cent Street, Port-of-Spain of­fices, two days af­ter Bakr de­liv­ered his con­tro­ver­sial ser­mon. Hold­er said Bakr was asked about sev­er­al is­sues raised in his ser­mon at the Ja­maat's Mu­cu­rapo head­quar­ters on No­vem­ber 7, 2005, in­clud­ing com­ments he made about za­kat.

Bakr replied: "You have to pay tax in this so­ci­ety, and the term za­kat ap­plies, and those things are writ­ten in the Qur'an." Za­kat re­quires Mus­lims to do­nate two-and-a-half per cent of their in­come to char­i­ty. Hold­er said Bakr told him: "You have your law books and I have mine. You go ahead and charge me."

Hold­er said to­ward the end of the in­ter­view Bakr said the fo­cus of the ser­mon was that his fol­low­ers should all work and not be de­pen­dent. Bakr, al­so known as Lennox Phillip, is ac­cused of com­mu­ni­cat­ing a state­ment with sedi­tious in­tent; pro­vok­ing a breach of the peace and two charges of in­cit­ing oth­ers to de­mand mon­ey by men­ace.

For­mer In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion pres­i­dent Bro No­ble Khan, who is al­leged to have been a tar­get in Bakr's ser­mon, is ex­pect­ed to be called as the next state wit­ness on Thurs­day. State pros­e­cu­tors and Bakr's de­fence at­tor­neys will give le­gal ar­gu­ments on a con­tentious point next week.

Bakr's le­gal team is led by Wayne Sturge and in­cludes Naveen Maraj and Vive­ka Par­gass. Se­nior Coun­sel Dana See­ta­hal, along with at­tor­neys Renu­ka Ramb­ha­jan and Shelly-Ann Ga­jad­har are pros­e­cut­ing.