Trinidad police arrest 5, seize weaponry in alleged plot to disrupt elections

Trinidad police arrest 5 in alleged election plot

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Police investigating an alleged plot to disrupt a Trinidad election say they have arrested five people and seized an assault rifle in a raid that also turned up T-shirts for a radical Islamic party.

Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert said authorities have “unearthed credible information which suggests that a certain group has expressed its intention to disrupt election proceedings.”

“We know who these people are, we know what they intend to do. We intend to use all our resources to ensure that elections are free and fair,” he told a news conference late Friday at which he displayed one of the T-shirts from the New National Vision party led by Fuad Abu Bakr, son of the man accused of masterminding a 1990 Islamic coup attempt.

He said police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle and dozens of rounds of ammunition in the raid on a house in northwestern Trinidad.

But Philbert declined to directly link the plot to New National Vision or to Jamaat al Muslimeen, which is led by Abu Bakr’s father.

Fuad Abu Bakr denied involvement.

“For someone to accuse us of trying to disturb the political process at this time is absurd,” Bakr told reporters Saturday. “It is very convenient at this time to find some guns and whatever and NNV jerseys and link that to us.”

The NVV is contesting 12 of 41 constituencies in the May 24 elections but the party has not garnered much support.

Police said they arrested a boy, 15, a woman, 22, a former Coast Guard member and two other suspects in their 20s.

Jamaat al Muslimeen was accused of storming Parliament in April 1990, taking the prime minister and his Cabinet hostage in a clash that killed 24 people. The rebels were later pardoned.

The recent announcement of early elections in Trinidad, which were not constitutionally due until 2013, has sparked a flurry of political activity.

Leaders of the country’s opposition party joined forces with a breakaway faction of the ruling party.

Patrick Manning’s People’s National Movement currently holds 26 of the 41 seats in Parliament, while the United National Congress holds the remaining 15 seats.

In previous elections, Jamaat al Muslimeen has openly campaigned for the island’s two major parties, but its leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, announced that the dormant NNV would be revived for the new election.