Fran­cis Joseph

Au­thor­i­ties at the Wash­ing­ton DC jail have de­scribed Ri­car­do De Four as a mod­el pris­on­er. This was al­so con­firmed by his Wash­ing­ton-based lawyer, Jonathan Zuck­er, who says that has been the re­sponse of prison guards every­time he goes to see his client.

The DC jail hous­es 11 Trinida­di­ans ex­tra­dit­ed to the US for their in­volve­ment in the kid­nap­ping and death of US cit­i­zen, Bal­ram "Ba­lo" Ma­haraj.

De Four, 36, is one of sev­en Trinida­di­ans fac­ing life im­pris­on­ment with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of pa­role af­ter they were con­vict­ed of tak­ing Ma­haraj hostage in 2005. Ma­haraj was snatched from the Samaan Tree Bar, Aranguez, on April 6, 2005. A ran­som of $3 mil­lion was de­mand­ed. He was nev­er seen alive again. He died in the kid­nap­pers' camp at San­ta Cruz. Eight months lat­er, his re­mains were dis­cov­ered in two con­tain­ers at the camp­site. He died of nat­ur­al caus­es, but his body was cut up in sev­er­al pieces by two of the men con­vict­ed in the case. De Four, a fa­ther of one, was dev­as­tat­ed when he was ar­rest­ed on Jan­u­ary 27, 2006, for the kid­nap and mur­der of Ma­haraj, a Trinida­di­an by birth. He was even more shocked when he was found guilty by a Wash­ing­ton ju­ry on Ju­ly 31. He sits in the DC jail await­ing his sen­tence from Judge John Bates, sched­uled for Feb­ru­ary 12, 2010. But he feels there is hope on the hori­zon with new ev­i­dence which he has re­ceived, and which was not avail­able dur­ing his tri­al at the E. Bar­nett Per­ry­man Fed­er­al Cour­t­house in Wash­ing­ton DC. As a con­vict­ed felon, De Four dress­es in a white jer­sey and or­ange trousers.

Al­though he is in the same fa­cil­i­ty with the oth­er Trinida­di­ans (four of them were pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es), De Four does not see the oth­ers. There is a prison or­der which pre­vents the Trinida­di­ans from com­mu­ni­cat­ing with each oth­er. They on­ly see each oth­er at the cour­t­house. De Four sits in a cell for 23 hours a day. He utilis­es the one hour for air­ing and hav­ing a bath. But he can re­ceive vis­its on Tues­days and Thurs­days, each for 30 min­utes. These are de­scribed as non-con­tact vis­its. Con­tact vis­its are al­lowed for his at­tor­ney. De Four's at­tor­ney has filed a mo­tion for a new tri­al, a date which has not yet been set for hear­ing. If he suc­ceeds on this mo­tion, the ju­ry's ver­dict will be va­cat­ed and a new tri­al giv­en to him. De Four, a for­mer mem­ber of the Spe­cial Forces unit of the T&T De­fence Force, agreed to an in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian, which was ac­com­mo­dat­ed last Tues­day. Right away, De Four said he had noth­ing to do with the kid­nap­ping and killing of 62-year-old Ma­haraj. He said he was set up by for­mer sol­dier, Ja­son Per­ci­val, who turned wit­ness for the US Gov­ern­ment. He said the De­fence Force and the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty shut all doors in his face to get vi­tal records from the Reg­i­ment to show that on April 6, 2005, when Ba­lo was kid­napped, he (De Four) was at Camp Omega con­duct­ing a course for the Spe­cial Forces.

Be­cause those doc­u­ments are still out­stand­ing, De Four turned to Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, as com­man­der-in-chief of the armed forces, and a last re­sort, for help. His im­pas­sioned plea to the Pres­i­dent came at the end of the in­ter­view. "Your Ex­cel­len­cy, Pres­i­dent Richards, Sir, I am plead­ing with you as a for­mer mem­ber of the De­fence Force, for your as­sis­tance in help­ing me to get the re­main­ing doc­u­ments," he said. "Al­so, I have a ques­tion for you, with all due re­spect, sir, is the life of an Amer­i­can sol­dier more valu­able than the life of a Trinidad sol­dier? "The rea­son for me ask­ing this, Amer­i­can sol­diers have been ac­cused of crimes all over the world where they serve. But the US gov­ern­ment nev­er al­lowed no oth­er coun­try to pros­e­cute their sol­diers. That is my rea­son for ask­ing that, Sir. "I al­so re­mem­bered when you pre­sent­ed me with my long ser­vice award in De­cem­ber 2005, we had a short con­ver­sa­tion, and I know you are a man who does not tol­er­ate in­jus­tice. I am plead­ing with you for help, be­cause every door my fam­i­ly and I have knocked on for as­sis­tance from the mil­i­tary and the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, all doors were shut in our faces. "Your Ex­cel­len­cy, Sir, I am�plead­ing with you for as­sis­tance in al­low­ing me to be grant­ed a new tri­al and to clear my name of these al­le­ga­tions which have been brought against me," De Four said.

The full in­ter­view

Q: Did you have any­thing to do with the kid­nap­ping and death of Bal­ram Ma­haraj?

A: No, I did not.

Q: How did you feel when the po­lice came to you and ac­cused you of this crime?

A: I was hu­mil­i­at­ed by the whole process be­cause I was ar­rest­ed in front of all mil­i­tary per­son­nel and civil­ians on the camp on that day.

Q: So when was the first time that you found out that your name was be­ing called in this mat­ter?

A: It was on the 27th of Jan­u­ary 2006.

Q: Was that a nor­mal work day for you?

A: Yes, it was.

Q: Who told you that the po­lice were look­ing for you?

A: Ma­jor Milling­ton.

Q: The po­lice came to you and said they were tak­ing you down. What went through your mind at that time?

A: At that time, I was think­ing about my fu­ture in the De­fence Force, I was think­ing about the clients I worked with, my fam­i­ly, how they would be af­fect­ed by the whole thing.

Q: Who you think was be­hind all this to im­pli­cate you in this?

A: Ja­son Per­ci­val.

Q: What rea­son would Ja­son Per­ci­val have to say things about you?

A: Be­cause, in ear­ly