WARRANTS were issued for the arrest of two men yesterday, one a retired police inspector and the other a police constable, after they failed to show up at the murder inquest involving Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr.

Yesterday, Coroner Nalini Singh issued the warrants for the men, retired Insp Earl Baird, who was the lead investigator in Israel Sammy’s murder case, and PC Andy Francois, after they failed to attend court although they were warned by another magistrate to return to court at the last sitting of the matter.

On the last occasion (August 20), the officers were ordered to return to court to give evidence in the inquest in which Abu Bakr is the subject matter.

Yesterday, Singh ordered the warrants, which when served carries with them a ’no bail’ order, on the duo after they failed to appear in court at 2.35 p.m., some five hours after the matter was scheduled to have started.

When Singh asked Elder for the best way to deal with the matter in the circumstance, Elder replied, ’Close the inquest.’ Singh later indicated that she would not do so until she has the evidence of the two men.

Before the matter was adjourned, Sgt Michael Veronique was called to the witness box to be crossed examined by Abu Bakr’s attorney, Pamela Elder SC.

During cross-examination, Veronique, who took the statement of the main witness in the matter, Brent Miller, who has yet to give evidence, told Elder that he did not sign the confession statement given by Miller on July 31, 2003.

Elder put to Veronique, who initially gave evidence in the matter on February 6, that Miller, twice before in other matters involving the Imam, said that he (Miller) could not read and that his signature at the bottom of the statement, acknowledging that he (Miller) re-read the statement, could not have been possible.

Veronique was then followed by Sgt George Patterson, who told Singh that he retrieved the autopsy report done on Sammy, but other reports pertaining to blood samples were not found when he attempted to get them at the Forensic Science Complex in St James. He was not questioned by Elder.

The inquest is probing the involvement of Abu Bakr in the death of Sammy, a mechanic of Valot Street, Boissiere Village, Maraval, who was snatched by masked men from his bed during the early hours of May 20, 1998, taken to the back of his house and executed.

The matter resumes on September 9.