One of the eight Trinida­di­an Imams held by se­cu­ri­ty forces in Venezuela on sus­pi­cion of plot­ting to over­throw the gov­ern­ment of Pres­i­dent Nicholas Maduro is plead­ing with the T&T Gov­ern­ment to in­ter­vene on the group's be­half.In an in­ter­view with TV6 News yes­ter­day, Imam Hamza Mo­hammed called on the Gov­ern­ment to do more to se­cure their free­dom, say­ing the con­di­tions at the jail in which they are be­ing held are de­plorable.

"These peo­ple just come and lock up every­body. Up to now they have not found any ev­i­dence that we are ter­ror­ists. I am a re­spectable Imam in my com­mu­ni­ty," Mo­hammed said.The group of 22, which al­so in­clud­ed six women and eight chil­dren, were held at the Plaza Ho­tel, Sa­bana Grande, in down­town Cara­cas last week. Venezue­lan au­thor­i­ties al­so con­fis­cat­ed US$102,000 in cash and 66 pass­ports that were in the pos­ses­sion of one of the Imams.

The men ap­peared be­fore an An­ti-Ter­ror­ism Tri­bunal Court in Venezuela on Wednes­day.The women and chil­dren were re­leased and re­turned to T&T last Fri­day.