Realterror News Articles

Terror suspects in court

By FRANCIS JOSEPH Tuesday, June 5 2007

TWO FUGITIVES, wanted in the United States on charges of conspiring to blow up JFK International Airport in New York, appeared in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court to answer to a request for their extradition.

Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, 56, and Abdul Kadir, 55, a former Guyana parliamentarian, were held by local police over the weekend.

Before the media could converge on the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court, local police quietly slipped Ibrahim and Kadir into the court building at 7.20 am.

Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls entered the courtroom at 9.29 am and called another extradition matter. When he completed that matter, he asked for Ibrahim and Kadir. Both men were brought into court at 9.44 am.

Kadir wore an olive green shirt jack suit and sported a short white beard. Ibrahim, a small-framed man, also wore a Nehru suit, a black and white fez, and sported a large white beard. Attorney Rajiv Persad said he was representing both men along with Fyard Hosein SC, Rishi Dass, and Farid Scoon.

Attorney David West represented the US Government. Ibrahim said he was also known as “Amir Kareem” and “Winston Kingston.”

Mc Nicolls then read out a document to both men — they are wanted for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts against the laws of the United States of America, offences which are extraditable. Mc Nicolls then looked for the charges, but was told by West that they had not yet arrived from the US Justice Department.

West said the provisional warrants were enough at this stage to hold Ibrahim and Kadir.

In the United States, Ibrahim and Kadir are charged with Russell De Freitas and Abdel Nur for conspiring to discharge and detonate an explosive device into the JFK Airport, to destroy fuel tanks and pipelines, to cause death and serious bodily harm.

They were also charged with conspiring to maliciously damage and destroy, by fire and an explosive, a building and real property. They were further charged with conspiring to destroy aircraft, both US and foreign.

The four were additionally charged with conducting illegal surveillance, photographing, videotaping and collecting information with the intent to plan the setting of fire to the terminal building.

Rajiv Persad said he was instructed only yesterday and needed time to take instructions from his clients. He felt that one week was enough following which time he would make an application for bail.

West had no problem with the adjournment. He said he needed 60 days by which time the Attorney General would give his authority to proceed with the extradition. He said that would take the matter to August 2.

Mc Nicolls then remanded both men in custody and adjourned the hearing to June 11. The courtroom was packed with supporters of the Trinidadian suspect, as well as local and foreign journalists.

Outside the court, there was a battery of media photographers waiting for both men. This caused traffic to slow while pedestrians stopped to see the men who stirred up international media attention last weekend.

Within half an hour, a grey van arrived to take the men to the Port-of-Spain State Prison. But one uniformed policeman waged a battle with photographers, trying his best to chase them away from the court house. When he realised he was wasting his time, he retreated. But CNN wasted little time in showing up the policeman to an international audience.

The event was so important that international media houses such as CNN, Fox News, BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, CMC, and the British Daily Telegraph were present.