Former Jamaat al Muslimeen member, Lance Small, who is serving 151 months in a US prison for terrorist activities, is among 30 Muslim prisoners detained at a special prison in Indiana, United States, dubbed, "Little Guantanamo." Small, also called Olive Enyahooma-El, was sentenced in the US Federal Court in Broward, Fort Lauderdale in 2006, after he was found guilty of conspiracy to export firearms and ammunition to Trinidad. Small, 76, was accused of attempting to export 60 AK-47 rifles, ten Mac-10 machine guns and ten silencers in 2001. He was extradited to the US in 2004 and faced trial two years later. In a six-page letter sent to the T&T Guardian, Small is appealing to the United Nations and Amnesty International to help him. Small said he was being kept at the Communications Management Unit (CMU) at Terre Haute, Indiana. He described the facility as a former federal prison which used to house death row inmates.
He said the facility was condemned 30 months ago, but was reopened for a group of Muslim prisoners who were shuttled secretly from prisons around the US to be housed under strict conditions. Small said there were 30 Muslim prisoners from 15 countries. "I share my tragic story before my countrymen in Trinidad and Tobago, and all the world to see," he said. Small said he was the victim of political persecution. "On July 27, 1990, I stood shoulder to shoulder with a group of Muslims as part of� a political movement to end the tyranny and injustice against fellow Muslims," he said. "The civil uprising ended with an amnesty deal to all those participating. However, despite high court ruling protecting us, the government had other plans for the country's Muslim community. "Twenty years later, I am a political prisoner, held captive in the US, lonely, isolated and sequestered away thousands of miles from my wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren."
He blamed strong-armed tactics to frame him after 9/11 and the so-called War on Terror. After he was released with 113 others for their roles in the attempted coup, Small said he travelled to the United States in 1993, establishing a small cosmetics company in Brooklyn. He said due to complications with official documentation and the long, expensive legal battle with the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service, he returned to Trinidad in 1998, leaving behind his wife, children and grandchildren. Small said while in Trinidad, he formed an international collection company with a business partner. "I later found that this company attracted the attention of US intelligence, although the business was completely lawful and legitimately profitable," he said. Small said in 2004, the T&T Government fabricated a conspiracy of weapons charges against him, accusing him of trying to purchase weapons to import into Trinidad.
The former Gonzales resident said he was eventually extradited to the US in 2004. He said an attempt was made to coerce him into implicating and framing Jamaat leader, Yasin Abu Bakr. He said: "I was subjected to a circus–a politically-charged trial–and was falsely convicted for events that never took place. I was then subjected to an exaggerated and harsh sentence of 151 months in the US Federal Prison." He said all appeals had been denied without explanation. Small said despite his age and nature of the charges,he was secreted away and persecuted even further with other Muslim prisoners, being placed in the old death row cells in Indiana. The former Jamaat man said he had been subjected to a number of abuses, including limited visits, and a ban on him saying his prayers. Small said he believed that the prison was bugged for sound and video. He stated that his constitutional rights had been infringed, and there is a cover-up of the abuses at the prison facility. He said in some cases, contact with wives and children had been blocked.
