Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

For­mer sol­dier Bryan Bar­ring­ton yes­ter­day ex­pressed dis­be­lief that he would be im­pli­cat­ed in an as­sas­si­na­tion plot af­ter serv­ing T&T faith­ful­ly for 12 years in the army. Speak­ing in an in­ter­view, Bar­ring­ton said it was heart- break­ing to know he had put his life on the line to pro­tect the coun­try dur­ing the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup on­ly to be now ac­cused of want­i­ng to kill Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Bar­ring­ton said he served in the T&T De­fence Force from 1989 to 2001 and was nev­er dis­hon­ourably dis­charged. He vowed to sue every­one who im­pli­cat­ed him as a dis­hon­ourable sol­dier, say­ing his rep­u­ta­tion was "ir­repara­bly dam­aged be­cause of the de­ten­tion."

He added: "Dur­ing the coup, I was a pri­vate re­cruit. I served well. I rep­re­sent­ed this coun­try in Puer­to Ri­co, Haiti, Mar­t­inque and Bar­ba­dos. "I served two full six-year terms and then I re­signed. I was nev­er dis­hon­ourably dis­charged." Asked why he chose to re­sign from the army, Bar­ring­ton said: "It was an is­sue of pro­mo­tion. I wrote the pro­mo­tion ex­am and I passed with a C-plus, yet every­one else was pro­mot­ed and I was left be­hind." Bar­ring­ton, of St Barb's, Laven­tille, said he de­cid­ed to leave the army and mi­grate to the Unit­ed States. He said he ten­dered his res­ig­na­tion on Oc­to­ber 7, 2001 and on De­cem­ber 9, that same year, he was charged with the No­vem­ber 12, 2000 mur­der of Ju­nior Om­bie Fred­er­icks. Af­ter three tri­als, Bar­ring­ton said he was ac­quit­ted.

Bar­ring­ton de­nied he was in­volved in any as­sas­si­na­tion plot, say­ing he was a vic­tim be­cause he was Mus­lim. On the day he was ar­rest­ed, he said he was car­ing for his one-month-old ba­by girl, Ruhaniyah, when the po­lice came knock­ing. He said the of­fi­cers told him they need­ed his as­sis­tance in con­nec­tion with some in­quiries. How­ev­er, it was on­ly when he was tak­en to the Wood­brook Po­lice Sta­tion he found out the re­al rea­son for his de­ten­tion.