High Court Judge Rajendra Narine has ordered that 11 properties belonging to Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr and Kala Aki Bua be auctioned off to compensate for damage incurred during the failed 1990 insurrection.

Justice Narine made the order yesterday in the Port of Spain Second Criminal Court.

However, the auction was placed on a 14-day stay following an application by attorney Lemuel Murphy, who told the court attorneys will be seeking to appeal the ruling.

Bakr and others were also ordered to pay the State costs in the matter fit for one senior and one junior counsel.

Following the ruling, Aki Bua told reporters Justice Narine had ’dealt with nothing’ in his judgment.

’He (Justice Narine) could have given it (decision) the following day when the matter first came to this court when this matter first started,’Aki Bua said.

In February 2006, the State sued Abu Bakr and 114 other current and former Jamaat members, threatening to seize and sell several parcels of land to recover a $32 million debt, which resulted from the destruction of Police Headquarters during the 1990 attempted coup.

The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General John Jeremie on February 6, 2006, identified 11 properties purportedly owned by Abu Bakr and his second in command, Aki Bua, to be put up for sale to satisfy part of the debt owed to the State.

Judgment was entered against the Jamaat and 57 of its members, who had been served with notice of the proceedings on September 16, 1996, after no defence had been filed in relation to a 1994 lawsuit claiming compensation for damage or destruction to the Police Headquarters in Port of Spain.

Damages were subsequently assessed at $15 million, with three per cent interest per annum from July 27, 1990, and 12 per cent for each year the sum remained unpaid following the assessment in January 2001. The debt was estimated at more than $32 million earlier this year and carries a daily interest rate of $6,480.30.

Attorneys Douglas Mendes SC, Dana Seetahal SC, Rikki Harnanan and Haran Ramkarran represented the Attorney General while Mark Seepersad, Gerald Ramdeen and Murphy represented the Jamaat, Abu Bakr and Aki Bua.