To the people of the Caribbean, the trial of four men charged with plotting to blow up John F Kennedy International Airport, New York, may be no big thing.
But for the people in the United States, it is considered a serious matter. The first step of the trial–jury selection–started on June 14 and, according to sources at the courthouse in Brooklyn yesterday, that process will take another two weeks before a jury is empanelled to hear the case against a Trinidadian and three Guyanese. Jury selection is taking place before Judge Dora Irizarry in the Eastern District of New York Federal Court. On trial are Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim and Guyanese Russell de Freitas, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur. The jury selection process is moving along slowly, according to sources. When this is completed, the US assistant attorney will open the case to the jury and reveal the prosecution's case and what is the evidence against the alleged plotters.
US attorney Benton Campbell had asked for an anonymous jury because De Freitas had threatened to kill a prosecution witness. The prosecution hopes to have the jurors semi-sequestered, meaning they would take lunch together and would be kept together during recesses. Their names and addresses would not be revealed once the prosecution gets its way. The four defendants have been slapped with conspiracy charges in an alleged plot to blow up the fuel tanks at the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport. The four were arrested following information provided to the US authorities by a man from Santo Domingo, who is a convicted drug trafficker and who is receiving financial assistance for information being provided.
Authorities said the witness has "provided extremely credible information that has been corroborated by consensual recordings, e-mails, financial documents, surveillance and other records and information." Campbell recalled that De Freitas, who once worked at the JFK Airport, and others began plotting to blow up the fuel tanks and connecting pipeline in early 2006. He reportedly said he was planning an attack for several years "from the time I worked in the airport before terrorism started in this country." Later De Freitas met the witness. They even travelled to Trinidad and met other persons. Campbell said De Freitas went to lengths to get photographs and video footage of the tanks and how he and the witness later met Nur in Guyana and they spoke about the type of explosives they could use to blow up the fuel tanks and pipelines.
It is alleged that De Freitas travelled to Trinidad and met Ibrahim, who said said he would send one of his "trusted associates to present the plot" to his contacts in Iran and/or the United Kingdom who were connected with the "revolutionary movement" in Iran. According to Campbell, since De Freitas' arrest in June 2007 at least two inmates previously housed in the same jail with him reported he had plotted to cause harm to an anticipated government witness and officers of the court. One of the inmates was a source of the authorities and he reported that De Freitas was "plotting to have a government witness killed and was also attempting to contact co-conspirators still at large in Guyana to warn them about the possibility of arrest and extradition."