A former National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) MP told the commission probing the failed 1990 Muslimeen coup he was told three times by a member of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen that the organisation was planning an armed uprising and that the Muslimeen would target the Red House on July 27, 1990.
However Rawle Raphael said he didn't take the warning seriously because he thought such a thing would never happen in Trinidad and Tobago.
Raphael told the commissioners the Muslimeen man was at the time working with him in the NAR's A Team. Raphael was the chairman of the community group.
"None of us took it seriously," he said, adding that he advised certain team members to inform the minister of national security. However when counsel for the Commission Avory Sinanan asked Raphael why he himself didn't go to the minister Raphael said he didn't believe the man.
"I believed it was a big rumour and big joke. I never imagined something like that could happen," he told Sinanan.
Raphael himself appeared to find the whole affair to be hilarious as he broke out in laughter several times during the testimony as he recounted details of what transpired.
During the testimony he said the informer had reported the threat to both National Security Minister Selwyn Richardson and the Prime Minister at the time, A.N.R. Robinson.
Raphael was a parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Trade. He said the Muslimeen man wanted a licence to import salt meat and went to the ministry's office on the day of the uprising to collect the licences and again warned of what was about to happen.
He said the man told him not to attend Parliament on that day "because there was going to be trouble down there". Raphael said he dismissed the advice, went to the legislature and became a hostage when the Muslimeen stormed then building. The informer's name, he said, was Lance Small "a Muslimeen guy from Belmont."
However Rawle Raphael said he didn't take the warning seriously because he thought such a thing would never happen in Trinidad and Tobago.
Raphael told the commissioners the Muslimeen man was at the time working with him in the NAR's A Team. Raphael was the chairman of the community group.
"None of us took it seriously," he said, adding that he advised certain team members to inform the minister of national security. However when counsel for the Commission Avory Sinanan asked Raphael why he himself didn't go to the minister Raphael said he didn't believe the man.
"I believed it was a big rumour and big joke. I never imagined something like that could happen," he told Sinanan.
Raphael himself appeared to find the whole affair to be hilarious as he broke out in laughter several times during the testimony as he recounted details of what transpired.
During the testimony he said the informer had reported the threat to both National Security Minister Selwyn Richardson and the Prime Minister at the time, A.N.R. Robinson.
Raphael was a parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Trade. He said the Muslimeen man wanted a licence to import salt meat and went to the ministry's office on the day of the uprising to collect the licences and again warned of what was about to happen.
He said the man told him not to attend Parliament on that day "because there was going to be trouble down there". Raphael said he dismissed the advice, went to the legislature and became a hostage when the Muslimeen stormed then building. The informer's name, he said, was Lance Small "a Muslimeen guy from Belmont."
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