Com­ments by read­ers of the on­line edi­tions of two dai­ly news­pa­pers will not be post­ed on re­ports on the up­com­ing sedi­tion tri­al of Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr. The de­ci­sion was tak­en yes­ter­day at a meet­ing be­tween Jus­tice Mark Mo­hammed and the two ed­i­tors-in-chief at the Port-of-Spain Third Crim­i­nal Court yes­ter­day morn­ing. At the meet­ing were T&T Guardian's Judy Ray­mond and the Trinidad Ex­press's Omatie Ly­der. The is­sue of the on­line com­ment sec­tion of the news­pa­pers' Web sites was first raised last week by Bakr's de­fence at­tor­ney Wayne Sturge. Dur­ing the pre-tri­al ju­ry-se­lec­tion process, Sturge said the com­ments which are post­ed by read­ers might prej­u­dice the ju­rors in the tri­al.

The ed­i­tors-in-chief al­so agreed to con­sid­er sus­pend­ing on­line com­ments on oth­er crim­i­nal tri­als on their re­spec­tive web­sites. Se­nior Coun­sel Gilbert Pe­ter­son ap­peared for the Trinidad Guardian, while at­tor­ney Fa­rees Ho­sein rep­re­sent­ed the Ex­press. Bakr is be­fore the court on four charges: Com­mu­ni­cat­ing a state­ment with sedi­tious in­ten­tion, en­deav­our­ing to pro­voke a breach of the peace and two charges of in­cit­ing oth­ers to de­mand mon­ey by men­ace. Dur­ing yes­ter­day's hear­ing, Mo­hammed and Sturge in­ter­viewed sev­er­al po­ten­tial ju­rors about their ed­u­ca­tion­al back­grounds and opin­ions on Bakr and the Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen. Thus far, an all-fe­male nine-mem­ber ju­ry with three al­ter­nates has been cho­sen to sit on the tri­al. Three more al­ter­nate ju­rors are ex­pect­ed to be se­lect­ed and sworn in by Fri­day, with the State ex­pect­ed to open the case by next Mon­day. Spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor Dana See­ta­hal, SC, and Renu­ka Ramb­ha­jan are pros­e­cut­ing the mat­ter.