Port-of-Spain, Trinidad – A judge denied bail Monday for three men accused of plotting to bomb New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, ordering them to remain in jail until a hearing on a U.S. request for their extradition.
The three men – Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur – smiled and waved to about 20 supporters and relatives in the courtroom but did not speak.
The suspects, arrested this month in this twin-island Caribbean nation, allegedly participated in a Muslim terror cell that planned to blow up a jet-fuel artery that runs through residential neighborhoods and feeds Kennedy airport.
The alleged mastermind of the plot, Russell Defreitas, 63, is a Guyana native who worked as a cargo handler at the airport until 1995. Defreitas, a U.S. citizen, is in custody in New York.
Rajiv Persad, an attorney for Kadir and Ibrahim, argued for their release on bail, noting they do not have criminal records and that Kadir served until last year as an opposition legislator in Guyana’s parliament.
“There is no evidence that these men would abscond given that they are solid members of their communities,” Persad said. Defense attorneys said Kadir and Nur, who are from Guyana, have relatives in Trinidad they could stay with if granted bail. Ibrahim is from Trinidad.
An extradition hearing is scheduled for Aug. 2.
U.S. authorities claim the alleged plotters unsuccessfully sought support in Trinidad from Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group that staged a deadly coup attempt here in 1990.
