PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – A 23-year-old man charged with threatening to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar will re-appear in court on March 19, after the prosecution said it was not prepared to start the case, when it was called for the fourth time on Tuesday.

Nicolai Marfan, an airport employee, is alleged to have sent a message by telephone which was menacing in character on October 10 last year. According to the charge the airport employee, allegedly telephoned the police, threatening to kill Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, the country’s first female head of government.

But when the matter was called, the prosecution informed Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar that the file was yet to be sent to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Roger Gaspar.

Marfan pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance on October 15 last year. He was originally placed on TT$75,000 (One TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) bail, but the figure was reduced to TT$5,000.

In 2011, the authorities extended a state of emergency and detained 14 people including a police sergeant, in an alleged plot to assassinate the prime minister and two senior members of her cabinet.