Premier Freed in Trinidad : 40 Others Still Held in Coup Bid

Muslim radicals freed Prime Minister Arthur N. R. Robinson today, five days after they took him and 40 other people hostage in a coup attempt, the attorney general said.

The other hostages, including 15 Cabinet members, were still being held, Atty. Gen. Anthony Smart said on state radio. He refused to say what conditions led to Robinson’s release.

Robinson left the Parliament building at 1:20 p.m., Smart said. “He is in good spirits,” he said. “We continue to pray for the safe return of the rest of the hostages.”

Robinson and the others were seized Friday by extremists who accused him of corruption and demanded that he resign. Robinson suffered gunshot wounds to both feet in the takeover. His condition was not immediately known.

Before the release, there were a series of reports about a possible deal between the government and the Muslim radicals.

The leader of the Muslims, Yasin abu Bakr, said this morning that Robinson had agreed to step down and that elections for a new government would be held within 90 days.

Robinson announced the same deal Monday night during a telephone call to journalists from inside Parliament. He also said he had agreed to grant his captors amnesty, and he denied being coerced into making the deal.

Selwyn Richardson, the justice and national security minister, spoke to a local journalist by telephone from inside Parliament today. He also said the government had granted amnesty to Bakr and his followers and that the agreement was contingent “upon the safe return of all members of Parliament” held hostage.

However, the program manager of government-run television, Bernard Pantin, said no formal deal was signed, and he doubted that an agreement had been reached except under coercion. Ask why he was skeptical, Pantin said: “All I know is the prime minister is a hostage.” Pantin spoke by telephone from the army base.

A government spokesman, Gary Shaw, also denied a deal was made. Asked about the statement from Robinson, Shaw said: “These are statements of people being held at gunpoint. People are made to make statements.”

There were 25 hostages inside the government television station. Most were employees of the station. The other hostages were in Parliament, about a mile away, guarded by other rebels. Bakr’s followers took over both buildings Friday.

Under the agreement reported earlier by Robinson and Bakr, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Dookeran, a widely respected moderate, would take over from Robinson until elections.

The interim government would be a coalition made up of representatives of all major political parties, along with Bakr’s Jamaat al-Muslimeen group.

The group, which is believed to number 250 to 300, has blamed Robinson for widespread poverty in this once oil-rich Caribbean nation near Venezuela. It has little support among the populace.

Bakr is a former policeman who converted to Islam in 1980 and has long considered himself a champion of the downtrodden.

He founded Jamaat al-Muslimeen, which means the Muslim Group in Arabic, in 1984.