Monday, September 28 2009

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Yasin Abu Bakr...

Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr has reportedly told his attorneys he will not challenge the court’s decision to sell 11 of his properties to satisfy the repayment of a debt owed to the Government by the sect.

On September 11, Justice Rajendra Narine ordered the properties be sold to repay the $32 million debt owed to the State for the damage caused during the 1990 insurrection.

The auctioning of the properties named by Attorney General John Jeremie in the summons for sale was stayed for 14 days as Bakr’s attorneys first indicated that they had intentions of appealing Narine’s decision.

The stay, granted by Narine, ended last Friday, but checks by Newsday have revealed that Bakr is yet to file an appeal of the decision.

Yesterday, Newsday learnt that Bakr has grown “frustrated” with the situation.

His attorneys however are encouraging him to appeal.

Source said since the go-ahead has been given by the courts for the sale of the properties, nothing prevents the Government now from placing Bakr’s real estate on the auction block.

Sources close to the Jamaat leader have however said that Bakr may sometime this week seek the leave of the Court of Appeal to challenge Narine’s decision.

Jeremie had sought the court’s intervention on February 6, 2006, for permission to sell 11 properties belonging to Bakr and some of the Jamaat members to recover the losses incurred in the failed 1990 coup attempt.

The 11 properties in question are: the Jamaat al Muslimeen compound at No 1 Mucurapo Road, St James; Bakr’s homes at Queen’s Park East, and La Puerta Avenue, Diego Martin; several parcels of land in Marabella, Couva, Guayaguayare, and Las Cuevas belonging to Kala Akii Bua, Gary Phillips, and Ahmad Islam Ali.

The summons for sale hearing was then shrouded in controversy when Bakr, in his defence, filed an affidavit on June 8, 2006, alleging that a deal had been struck with the Government and Prime Minister Patrick Manning to forgive the debt and in return the Jamaat would provide “muscle” for the People’s National Movement in the 2002 General Election. The affidavit was then deemed as “scandalous” by the Appeal Court and the Privy Council which both ordered that it be struck from the record.

However, Narine in his ruling on September 11, referred extensively to the document and ordered that investigations be conducted by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of Police.