PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) – Police arrested Trinidad’s opposition leader and three others yesterday on corruption charges connected to an airport construction contract in this gas-rich Caribbean country, authorities said.

Basdeo Panday, prime minister from 1995-2001, was arrested at his office in the capital, police Inspector John Telesford said. He was taken into custody shortly after meeting with a delegation of India parliamentarians led by lower house Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Judge Ejene Espinet charged Panday in Magistrate’s Court with having accepted a £25,000 (US$45,600, euro36,600) bribe from former Works Minister Carlos John and businessman Ishwar Galbaransingh, who were also charged with bribery. Panday’s wife Oma Panday was also charged.

Basdeo Panday, wearing a blue business suit, refused to post TT$750,000 (US$120,000, euro97,000) bail and clenched his fist in the air as he was led out of the courthouse to an unmarked police car that took him to a Port-of-Spain prison.

His only comment to reporters was: “Did you not expect this?” About two weeks ago, the 72-year-old Panday predicted that he would be arrested and charged.

Galbaransingh posted TT$1 million (US$161,400, euro 129,400) while John and Oma Panday posted TT$750,000 (US$120,000, euro97,000) bail. A preliminary hearing for all four was set for June 7. They were not required to enter a plea.

“Mr Panday has decided to symbolically refuse bail … and he is carrying on the struggle from in jail,” said Ganga Singh, Parliament’s minority whip and a member of Panday’s party.

Alleged corruption involving the construction of the Piarco International Airport has dogged Panday’s United National Congress party, which was in power at the time the airport opened in 2000.

Opposition leaders have consistently called the corruption allegations political persecution.

Galbaransingh was one of eight people charged in May 2004 with conspiracy. Four of the others were former government officials in Panday’s administration.

Prosecutors alleged the seven men and one woman exchanged gifts and cash bribes totalling US$267 million (euro214 million). All, including former Finance Minister Brian Kuei Tung, were charged with conspiracy to obtain contracts, payments or settlements.

Prosecutors alleged Galbaransingh, who headed a construction company, paid advertising executive Renee Pierre’s company to run advertisements for Kuei Tung’s United National Congress party. The case is still pending.

Panday is facing charges in a separate case filed in September 2002 that he failed to disclose money he allegedly held in a London bank account between 1997 and 1999.

Panday’s bank account reportedly held millions of Trinidadian dollars, though authorities have never identified the amount. Panday has said he considered the account to be his wife’s and simply forgot to list it.

If convicted on all three counts, Panday faces fines of up to TT$20,000 (US$3,200, euro2,530) and a possible two-year prison sentence.

Other Caribbean politicians who have been imprisoned include Antiguan premier George Walter, who, in 1976, lost a general election and was subsequently charged for misbehaviour in public office after an inquiry into his Government. Walter was sent to jail but eventually won at appeal.

Donald Halstead, a minister in the Walter Government, was also charged for corruption but skipped the country. Halstead returned several years later and the Bird Government dropped the charges.

In the early 1990s, J A G Smith, Jamaica’s minister of labour, was jailed for converting farm workers’ money to his own use.

Probyn Aitken, the permanent secretary in the labour ministry at the time, was also jailed.