Fifteen years after he was detained over an alleged plot to assassinate then-prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and several cabinet ministers in 2011—a plot for which he was never charged—David “Buffy” Milliard says the experience devastated his reputation and livelihood.Yet, despite the personal cost, he insists national security authorities were right to investigate any credible threat against the country’s leadership.
Assassination claim:PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar.—Photo: ISHMAEL SALANDY
David “Buffy” Milliard made the statements during an interview with the Sunday Express at Express House, Port of Spain, yesterday, adding he understands why the State needed to act the way it did.At the height of the 2011 state of emergency, then-prime minister Persad-Bissessar stunned the nation by announcing an alleged plot to assassinate her and three Cabinet ministers. She claimed the conspiracy was retaliation by criminal elements targeted in the Government’s anti-gang campaign.Milliard, one of 16 men (15 of them being Muslim) detained under a Preventive Detention Order (PDO) during the state of emergency, said he has always maintained his innocence and was ultimately never charged, in addition to none of the other men who were held.Reflecting on the experience 15 years later, he said while the detention severely damaged his livelihood, he believes national security authorities had a responsibility to investigate any credible threat against the country’s leadership.“I categorically deny being involved,” he said, insisting he had no knowledge of any plot to assassinate the prime minister or cabinet ministers.Milliard recalled that he was liming at a barbecue stand on Independence Square, Port of Spain, shortly before midnight when several police officers approached him.According to him, the officer in charge identified himself, informed him there was a warrant for his detention and asked if he would cooperate.“I looked up and said, ‘Chief, you have about 30 police officers here, so I guess I’ll come in quietly,’” he recalled.He said officers searched his van before taking him first to the Besson Street Police Station, then to the Central Police Station and eventually to the Diego Martin Police Station where a senior officer informed him why he was being detained.“He (police officer) said, ‘We have detained you because we believe you may be involved in an assassination plot to assassinate the prime minister and four sitting ministers.’”Milliard said he was stunned by the allegation.“I said, ‘Please say it again.’ He said it again. I said, ‘Say it one more time. I’m hoping on the third time it will disappear.’”‘Police are not crazy men’The following morning, Milliard said he was interviewed by approximately 15 officers representing several intelligence and security agencies.He said investigators questioned him for several hours, and he voluntarily handed over his cellphones and other electronic devices.“I opened my phones willingly and I set it down. I said, ‘You can go through my phones,’ Milliard said, adding: ‘I said, ‘And please provide me with whatever electronic recordings or evidence you have that might have led you to believe that I am involved in this.’ We spoke for a while. The only thing that I will say is that there were no electronic pieces of evidence.”Milliard said investigators never presented him with any electronic recordings or any other type of evidence linking him to the alleged plot and said the authorities did not have to.Despite that, he said he does not believe the authorities acted maliciously but were responding to intelligence which they felt required urgent investigation.“The police are not crazy men,” he said, adding, “If somebody, anybody, said to them somebody is planning to kill the prime minister of our country and four ministers, would you not establish a net and start investigating? Of course, you would.”Milliard said he fully cooperated with investigators because he understood the seriousness of the allegation.He also dismissed suggestions that authorities deliberately framed those who were detained.“If they wanted to set us up, we would have been charged,” he said.“They could have locked us away easily because the same way people were willing to believe that the 15 of us had a plot, the same way when (if) they charged us, people would have said, ‘Good, I’m happy they charged them.’”Instead, he noted none of the detainees were charged in connection with the alleged assassination plot.While he escaped criminal prosecution, Milliard said the damage to his reputation and business was immediate.“Perception is reality to he or she who perceives,” he said, explaining: “Once you are detained for something like that, your business disappears.”He said some clients distanced themselves while others demanded explanations before continuing to do business with him.Recalling one encounter, Milliard said a man approached him in a supermarket and bluntly asked why he wanted to kill Persad-Bissessar.“I said, ‘Chief, I have no intention of killing anybody.’”After speaking with him for about 20 minutes, Milliard said the man apologised.He said the experience reinforced his belief that public perception can be changed through honest communication.Although several people, including attorneys, encouraged him to sue the State, saying he could have received millions of dollars in compensation, Milliard said he deliberately refused.“The government has no money of their own,” he said, stressing: “The government has money that is derived from taxation.”Arguing that any compensation awarded would ultimately come from taxpayers, he said: “Why would I take $15 million from the people who live around me because somebody heard something and took the necessary steps to prevent it?”Milliard asked: “Who pays taxes? Ordinary citizens. My neighbours, whether they are 1%ers or they are 99%ers like me. Sufferers. You pay taxes. And when you pay the taxes, that money goes into the treasury. And when that money is spent, people perceive it to be Government funds, but it’s not. The lineage of that money is the pocket of a hardworking man.”Milliard also praised the treatment he received from both police and prison officers throughout his detention.He said officers were professional and respectful, prisoners were allowed to pray, halal meals were provided, and there was no attempt to intimidate those being held.“They treated us well and there was no attempt to intimidate us.”He also recalled that on the night detainees were released on December 5, 2011, then-commissioner of prisons Martin Martinez ensured each man contacted relatives to arrange transportation home rather than leaving them stranded late at night.“He said, ‘I cannot in good conscience let you go to stand on the highway at 12 o’clock at night.’“Who does that?” Milliard asked.‘I feel sorry for Hadeed’Drawing comparisons with the recent detention of businessman Dominic Hadeed; his wife, Genevieve Hadeed; and relative Star Sabga, Milliard said he sympathises with them but urged the public to allow investigators to carry out their work.“I feel sorry for Mr Hadeed. It’s a very hard experience for himself and his wife, but in actuality, if there’s any truth whatsoever, any reason for the national security apparatus to operate, they have no choice.”Asked if he had any advice for Hadeed, Milliard replied: “May the truth come out. I can’t speak on his behalf. Or I cannot speak derogatory about him because I don’t know him. Never met him. But one thing I can say for myself. This Government is not the same government that detained me. But it’s led by the same people. And, bro, they could have sank me.”
