Wednesday, July 4 2012

ALMOST a month after charges of sedition, incitement and demanding by menace were laid against Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr, the victim named in one of the charges was sought out by police to give a statement.

Former Inter Religious Organisation (IRO) president Noble Khan was the named victim and has said in testimony at Bakr’s trial, that he was shocked and very traumatised when he listened to a 7 o’clock evening television news broadcast and heard his name called as one of the persons from whom Bakr intended to collect Zakat - the tax paid by wealthy Muslims.

“Abu Bakr indicated that next year, Zakat will be collected and everyone will have to pay. People from his Jamaat would be collecting Zakat... And if they don’t pay they will have to change their religion. I was very scared and fearful. If you do not want to pay they would take it. My name was called. He said, ‘We’d be going by him and if he doesn’t pay, take it from him’,” Khan said in his evidence-in-chief, last week.

Testifying yesterday before Justice Mark Mohammed, Khan admitted that he never made a report to the police. Khan’s only statement to police was given on December, 8, 2005. Bakr was charged on November 9, one month before.

As he was questioned by Bakr’s lead attorney Wayne Sturge, the former IRO president admitted that he did not, in his statement, say he felt fearful or traumatised by what he had heard on the television newscast.

Khan denied lying by now saying how he felt in an effort to bolster the prosecution’s case. He also could not recall being telephoned by an independent senator.

As the two crossed paths again, Sturge told Khan he had a “dim view” of him and had to be warned by the judge. The defence have intimated alleged alleged political interference involving Bakr’s criminal prosecution. Khan returns today when he will be further questioned by Sturge.