Convicted Trinidadian terrorist dies in U.S. prison

The Trinidadian man who was convicted in the United States for conspiring to blow up fuel tanks and pipelines under the John F Kennedy International Airport has died of heart failure at a prison medical facility.

Kareem Ibrahim passed away at the US Medical Centre for Federal Prisoners in Missouri, just after 10am on Tuesday. He was 70.

After a four-week trial, Ibrahim was convicted in May 2011 for conspiring with three Guyanese nationals, including former Guyanese parliamentarian Abdul Kadir, to carry out a terrorist attack at the JFK International Airport in Queens, New York. He was sentenced the following year to life in prison.

The evidence at the trial established that Ibrahim, an imam and leader of the Shiite Muslim community in Trinidad, provided religious instructions and operational support to a group plotting to carry out the attack.

Attorney Farid Scoon, who represented him in his extradition case in Trinidad, maintained his client’s innocence and said that his body “never took to incarceration”.

“It is unfortunate that an innocent man was convicted of a crime that he had absolutely no guilt [for] and had to spend the last winters of his life in a maximum-security prison in the United States.”

He said arrangements were being made for Ibrahim’s body to be flown back to Trinidad for burial.

Just over a month ago, Ibrahim became the first person to be officially declared a terrorist by the Trinidad and Tobago government.

Justice Nadia Kangaloo ruled that there was sufficient evidence to deem him a terrorist under the Anti-Terrorism Act, and gave the government the go-ahead to begin the process of freezing any of his assets which it found. The application was the first ever filed and granted under the legislation. (CBN4)