Special Branch to receive Nishal

An American Embassy liaison is today making arrangements for Special Branch officers and their colleagues from the Organised Crime and Intelligence Unit (OCIU) to receive deportee Nishal Sankat, who is due to arrive tonight aboard Caribbean Airlines flight BW 481.

The flight is scheduled to arrive from the US at 10.20 pm.

Sankat is expected to be accompanied by two Federal Bureau of Investigators (FBI) officers. On arrival at Piarco, the local officers will interview Sankat at the airport and then allow him to leave with relatives.

Sankat’s parents, who were in Belize up until 3 pm, are expected to return to TT to be reunited with their son.

Calls to the mobile phone of Nishal’s father Prof Clement Sankat for comment on his son’s deportation went unanswered. However, a relative said yesterday they were eager to have Nishal back home so that he could be given the love, attention and medical advice to help his rehabilitation.

On Tuesday, National Security Minister Stuart Young said the Immigration Division and the police will be on standby today to receive Sankat when he is handed over at Piarco . Young said the US authorities told him on Monday of Sankat’s deportation.

“All arms of our law enforcement which deal with returning deportees have been notified and are prepared to receive Sankat,” he said.

The deportation is part of a plea deal after Sankat, 22, pleaded guilty to burglary of a conveyance in a court appearance on Monday. Charges of trespass and grand theft were dropped.

He reportedly tried to steal an aircraft in Melbourne, Florida last week.