Name Abdul Kadir | ||
Abdul Kadir (born circa 1952) is a former member of Guyana's parliament, the National Assembly, and was the mayor of Guyana's second-largest city, Linden, from 1994 to 1996. A chemical engineer by profession, he served in the National Assembly from 2001 to 2006 as a member of the main opposition party, the People's National Congress Reform.
Born Michael Seaforth in Buxton, Guyana, the son of Victor Seaforth, Kadir converted to Islam in 1974 and changed his name. He and his wife Isha, both Shia Muslims, have nine children and 18 grandchildren.
In 2007, Kadir was arrested in Trinidad in connection with a plot to blow up jet-fuel supply tanks and pipeline at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City. He was arrested 2 June while en route to Caracas, Venezuela, where he planned to pick up a visa in order to attend an Islamic conference in Iran. Also implicated in the plot were Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-American, Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, and Abdel Nur of Guyana. The United States government alleges that Kadir and Nur were associated with the Trinidad-based Jamaat al Muslimeen, a militant Muslim group. Kadir was arrested in Trinidad and Tobago; he was extradited to the United States. On 2 August 2010, Kadir – along with Russell Defreitas – was convicted in a jury trial for the JFK airport bomb plot. According to US court documents, Kadir was the disciple of Mohsen Rabbani, an Iranian diplomat accused of being one of the masterminds behind the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires. Kadir was sentenced to life imprisonment.