PORT OF SPAIN – The Trinidad Government’s attempt to recover a multi-million-dollar debt owed by the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen is far from over, Special Prosecutor Dana Seetahal, SC, said.The state intends to go after the properties of more than 50 members of the Muslim organisation who actively participated in the 1990 attempted coup, Seetahal told the Express newspaper in a telephone interview.Eight properties owned by Jamaat leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr and one property owned by his second-in-command, Kala Aki Bua, were sold in a public auction at the City Hall in Port-of-Spain on Tuesday.The state recovered $5.2 million of the outstanding $42.3 million debt owed by the Jamaat from the sale of the nine properties in the auction.“Even though the state has moved successfully against two defendants, there is nothing to prevent the state from enforcing the judgment against the other more than 50 defendants who have already been served, once property is located,” Seetahal said.Tuesday’s auction came as a result of a judgment made by Justice Rajendra Narine on September 11 last year. One hundred and fourteen Jamaat members who were involved in the attempted coup are listed as debtors in documents filed at the High Court. So far, 57 of the coup-makers, including Abu Bakr and Aki Bua, have been served with legal notices.Judgment was entered against the Jamaat and 57 of its members on September 16, 1996, after no defence had been filed in relation to a 1994 lawsuit, Chief State Solicitor Christophe Grant stated in an affidavit filed on February 2006.On January 15, 2001, Justice Joseph Tam assessed damages in the sum of $15 million, with interest at a rate of three per cent per annum from July 27, 1990, to the date of his decision.As at the date of Narine’s judgment, the interest amounted to $4.7 million. Interest continues to accrue at $6,480.30 a day and the Jamaat’s total for the damage now stands at over $42.3 million.
SatisfactorySeetahal said the State was satisfied with the $5.2 million recovered as a result of Tuesday’s auction.“Even when the State filed the injunction in 2006, it had not then expected to raise $32 million from the sale of the properties,” Seetahal said.He added that the nine properties which were sold on Tuesday were valued at just over $8.3 million by an independent valuator in June last year. “Due to the drop in property prices over the past year and the fact that it was a public auction, the State is satisfied that the auction was successful,” she said.Relatives of Abu Bakr – one of his wives, Indrani Maharaj-Abu Bakr, and one of his sons, Ayinde – bought two of the properties at Tuesday’s auction. The duo successfully bid a total of $2.4 million for the two properties. (Trinidad Express)