Realterror News Articles

Kadir, Ibrahim remanded

- extradition trial to start in 60 days – wanted bulletin issued for Abdel Nur

By Nigel Williams and Heppilena Ferguson

Tuesday, June 5th 2007

Abdel Nur: photo issued along with bulletin by Trinidad police, which listed him as armed and dangerous.

Former PNCR Member of Parliament Abdul Kadir and Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim were yesterday remanded to prison when they made their first appearance before Chief Magistrate of Trinidad & Tobago Sherman Mc Nichols.

The two men, who have been charged along with two others, with plotting to blow up the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, will make another court appearance next Monday and their lawyers have indicated that they would be applying for bail.

Prosecutor within the Attorney-General’s Office of T&T David West, appearing on behalf of the US, told the court that he would be ready to commence the extradition hearing within 60 days. Extradition hearings in T&T, once they get started, do not last for more than a week, but the accused are usually given a chance to appeal.

Yesterday Kadir and Ibrahim arrived at the Port of Spain Magistrate’s Court in a dark-grey unmarked jeep amid light showers and heavily overcast conditions. The courtroom was packed with local and foreign journalists as well as more than half a dozen men and women, who appeared to be Muslims. Around 9.43 am, Chief Magistrate Mc Nichols ordered the police to take Kadir and Ibrahim to the courtroom and three minutes later, they arrived and the case was called. Magistrate Mc Nichols read the charge of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act against the United States of America, individually to Kadir and Ibrahim. Kadir wore a beige shirt-jac suit and stood expressionlessly, his hands together behind his back.

Magistrate Mc Nichols said the offence was extraditable under Trinidad law, adding that it was also an indictable offence and they were not allowed to plead.

Ibrahim acknowledged that he is also known as Winston Kingston (his previous name) and Ameer Kareem.

After the charge was read, West asked for 60 days by which time all the relevant documents would be furnished by the US to begin the extradition hearing. The 60-day period will end on August 2.

Attorney-at-law Rajiv Persaud, appearing for Kadir and Ibrahim, at this point said he needed time for the defence team to consult with its clients and also indicated that a bail application would be made when the case comes up again next Monday. Magistrate Mc Nichols advised the accused that they have a right to apply to a judge in chambers for bail.

While the courtroom provided no drama, the street outside was a swarm of local and foreign journalists. Many of them perched on the fence to get the best shot, because the vehicle escorting the suspects had driven right up to the entrance. Policemen at the courthouse appealed to the cameramen and photographers to get off the fence, telling them that they were defacing government property, to no avail. But in the end many of them went away without a proper shot or footage.

Abdel Nur

Meanwhile, up to press time, the fourth man charged, Abdel Nur was still at large and the Trinidad police issued a wanted bulletin for him.

Trinidadian authorities described Nur, born Compton Eversley, as armed and dangerous and called on citizens cooperate with the police in finding him.

Nur had flown to that country on May 20, according to Trinidad’s Police Commis-sioner Trevor Paul. He had allegedly gone there to pave the way for a meeting between the other alleged conspirators, Russell Defreitas and Ibrahim to present the terror plan to the leader of the Jamaat Al-Muslimeen group in Port of Spain for possible financing.

Paul, speaking to reporters yesterday at a press conference, said Nur travelled to T&T on May 20 and he was confident that the Guyanese was still on the island. Nur, 57, with a height of 156 centimetre has black and grey hair and beard, Paul told the media.

The Albouystown, George-town resident and uncle of former World Boxing Champion Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis, was raised in the Albouystown community. Nur was deported from the US in the late 1980s, after he was convicted of drug trafficking, and according to reports, helped feed poor and underprivileged children in the notorious urban slum.

Susan Calendar, a woman who benefited from Nur’s largesse told Stabroek News yesterday: “He is a very nice man I cannot stop saying that.” She is one of several persons living in a two-storey house where the alleged terrorist lived.

“I am not saying that he can’t be part of this, but this is strange for a man like him,” another neighbour of the man who worked nowhere, but was frequently seen liming at a city cambio, said yesterday. The woman said that about three weeks ago Nur departed Guyana telling them he was going to Trinidad; they have not heard from him since.

Local police have disclosed that the Albouystown resident had been detained on February 13 at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was fingerprinted, and released. After he was named as a suspect, police went to his house and seized Islamic books and documents, including receipts from international money transfers.

Another female living in the lower flat of the house said she too had benefited a lot. She claimed that Nur was well supported by a friend overseas and whenever he had money, he would feed some of the poor children in the community. “He used to come and share out food to the children… and he never looked like that sort of person,” the woman said, requesting that her name not be used. She said Nur looked like a drug addict, but he was actually a devout Muslim who ensured that he attended the mosque for prayers and other service. The woman said he had children who would visit him from time to time.

Wazeir Ally, caretaker of the Alexander Village Masjid, where Nur is a member, said the brother never looked like he had the capacity to plan such an attack. Ally said Nur usually went for the 6 am prayers at the mosque and would not return until the next day. “He used to come and do all of his prayers in the morning, so we never used to see him in the afternoons,” Ally said.

He said Nur always looked unassuming and was never properly dressed. “You would know how a man who abuses marijuana would look… he is frail looking.” Ally said as far as he knew Nur did not have any close friends at the mosque, adding that whenever the man attended service he would sit on a bench just outside the prayer area all by himself. “Sometimes a man might sit next to him and so they would have a conversation but other than that no one engages him,” the caretaker said.

Brother Khalid, Acting Imam of the mosque said he was shocked to hear of Nur’s alleged involvement in such a plot. Khalid said his organization did not tolerate such activities, adding that were they aware of such a plan, they would have intervened. Muslims reporting for prayers at the mosque yesterday mostly did not comment on the incident. Those who did were shocked that the humble-looking Nur could be embroiled in such a chilling conspiracy.

In Islam, Abdel or Abdul Nur means, ‘Servant of Light’; Abdul, means ‘Son’ and Noor or Nur in the original Arabic means Light.

PNCR

PNCR Leader Robert Corbin, at a press conference yesterday, said its member and former parliamentarian Kadir had never, in the party or the country, displayed “a proclivity for illegality or any from of extremism”.

Corbin condemned the reported plot and restated his party’s position that terrorist acts in whatever guise, perpetuated by persons in pursuit of whatever cause are heinous and unacceptable.

Corbin also said he welcomed the prompt response of the government in which it offered to deal with terrorism and promised to work with international agencies towards this end. “The party hopes that this same attitude will prevail with regard to activities in respect of drug trafficking and the exploitation of that trade,” the opposition leader said.

The PNCR restated that it knows Kadir as a devout Muslim and a well-respected member of the Linden community.

Corbin stressed that the party had no cause to link Kadir in any other way or think of him in any other way. The opposition leader, who is an attorney by profession, said the issue of whether Kadir may have known that he was under surveillance by US authorities was never raised, and noted that a man was innocent until proven guilty.

“This has been the position of the party whether it is Abdul Kadir or Mark Benschop …such persons ought to be given a fair trial and fair investigation of the matter concerned,” Corbin said . (Former talk show host Benschop has been in prison for several years now awaiting a retrial on a treason charge.)

Corbin added that the party expected that Kadir would be afforded the due process of the law.

Asked whether the party would be willing to support Kadir in his trial proceedings, financially or otherwise, the opposition leader said that was a matter which the party would probably have to consider. “But I rather suspect that if any party member is in distress perhaps…, but to consider whether the PNC has any money is another issue … the matter would have to be considered if raised.”

Quizzed on whether the United States Embassy or US authorities had made any contact with the party, Corbin said not as far as he was aware. He said he spoke with General Secretary Oscar Clarke who had not brought any special enquiries to his attention.

Kadir served as a parliamentary representative for Region Ten ( Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) for one term following the 2001 elections. However, after the 2006 polls he was not reinstated.

Asked why Kadir was not serving in this the Ninth Parliament, Corbin told the media yesterday that it had nothing to do with Kadir personally. “It had to do with making a choice out of five persons and to only choose one to represent Region Ten and so we selected the youngest person from the list and so we have Vanessa Kissoon,” he explained.

He added that like any other member of the party, Kadir had worked during the 2006 elections campaign in Region Ten, but had not been very active among the parties’ groups in the post-elections period.

‘My father is innocent’

At Kadir’s home yesterday there was anger and the general feeling that he had been set up.

Kareem Abdul Kadir, the man’s fifth child, maintained that his father was innocent and said he resented that he had just been picked up and charged with the horrendous plot.

Kareem said he felt it was unreasonable that his father’s trial would not get underway for two months. He insisted that his family has no problem with the law but questioned why the long wait for the extradition trial.

“These people only met my father recently,” he said, “and now they treating him as though he’s the biggest terrorist,” he said when asked if he remembered his father being friends with Defreitas.

Asked about his knowledge of his father’s association with Nur, he said from reports he had read in the media, he understood that Nur “was a junkie”.

“My father is a respectable person in this society and don’t mix with those types of people,” he contended.

He said that because of health reasons, his mother was not able to travel to Trinidad for yesterday’s court appearance, but since his father would be in Trinidad much longer than anticipated, she would travel there shortly.

“I am annoyed,” Kareem said. “I’ve known my daddy all my life, always supportive and I’ve listened to his teaching and I know he would never do anything like this… It is clear it is a set up.

“My father didn’t have any big communication with these people and it is sad to know that people would go to these lengths to incriminate such an innocent man.”

Indictment

According to court documents seen by this newspaper, Defreitas, a former JFK Airport worker was the progenitor of the plan and signalled his intentions to others which eventually led to the plotters travelling to Guyana on several occasions and hatching elaborate plans including an intention to draft the radical Trinidadian group Jamaat al-Muslimeen into the plan. Just days prior to the alleged plotters being arrested, several of them had travelled to Trinidad where the US is alleging that they held a meeting with Muslimeen officials. The Muslimeen had been behind the abortive coup in Trinidad and Tobago in 1990. Several other Guyanese were referred to in the complaint but not named and it is presumed that the US is still interested in pursuing them. The US is alleging that the quartet and others conspired to detonate an explosive device at JFK Airport, New York and at fuel tanks and pipelines there “with the intent to cause death and serious bodily injury and the intent to cause extensive destruction of such system and facility, where such destruction would result in and would be likely to result in major economic loss.” They are also accused of conspiring to destroy by means of fire or explosive a building and other property used in interstate and foreign commerce, to wit buildings and property at the airport. They are further accused of plotting to place a destructive device in such a way as to make aircraft in a special aircraft jurisdiction and civil aircraft utilized in interstate and overseas air commerce unworkable and unusable. Defreitas, Kadir and others are also accused of surveilling, photographing and collecting information – including satellite photos – on the terminal with the purpose of furthering their plot against the airport.

The US is alleging that after formulating their plot, Defreitas and a paid informant who is a drug convict journeyed to Trinidad on May 20 and Nur arrived later. Once in T&T Defreitas and the informant met Ibrahim who took them to the compound of the Trinidadian group, Jamaat-al-Muslimeen. When they got there, they met Nur who informed them that he had met with the Muslimeen official and the official has suggested that they all return in a few days to discuss the plan in detail and in the meanwhile he wanted do some checks on Defreitas and the informant before any meeting. Nur, Defreitas, the informant and Ibrahim went to Ibrahim’s abode. At the Trinidadian’s home the plotters called Kadir back in Guyana and Nur told him that he had met with the Muslimeen official.

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=56521717