Car crash claims survivor of brutal murders

By PAUL YANDALL

Hafeez Abu Saad Hakim had seen more tragedy than anyone deserved to.

The 19-year-old Auckland man, who witnessed the slaying of most of his family 10 years ago, died on Friday - still embroiled in a legal wrangle with his father over his inheritance.

Mr Hakim, a security alarm installer, was killed when his northbound car collided with a truck on State Highway 1, 20km south of Tokoroa, on Friday night.

He was only eight when his mother, brother and sister were butchered by his mother's partner, Mohammed Yakub, at their Kingsland home in February 1990. He escaped with a serious knife wound to his neck.

Yakub, then a 25-year-old slaughterman, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders.

Mr Hakim appeared on the front page of the Herald last December, embroiled in a battle against his father, known as Mohammed Fareed or Mohammed Fareed Hakim, for more than $200,000 he said his father took from the estate of his murdered mother, Atika Fareed.

"He died homeless and penniless," said his grandfather, Hamsat Ali.

"He lived through too much. We buried him [on Sunday] - there were so many people there. Where were they when he needed them?"

In the High Court at Auckland last December, Abu Hakim won a small victory when Justice Robertson replaced Mr Fareed with Mr Hakim's grandmother as a trustee of the disputed estate.

But a decision on who would eventually control the estate had not been made.

According to Mr Hakim's statement of claim, his mother and father separated in 1989 in Masterton, and he and his mother, brother and sister moved to School Rd in Kingsland.

His mother had made a will in 1988 leaving all of her estate to her husband. After their separation, she made a new will naming the children as beneficiaries.

But she was murdered before she could sign it, and control of her estate went to Mr Fareed after he managed to prove the original will genuine. However, a family meeting decided the estate would go to the children as the unsigned will had indicated and Mr Fareed would act as a trustee.

In 1994, at the age of 13, Mr Hakim was sent to England by his father for five years to pursue Islamic studies, during which time he memorised the Islamic holy book, the Koran.

While he was away, his father allegedly sold the Kingsland property for $224,000 without telling the family.

When the sale was discovered, the murdered woman's father, Hamsat Ali, asked Mr Fareed for the money. In an affidavit, Mr Ali said that Mr Fareed now claimed that the 1988 will was valid and that the couple intended to live together again.

Mr Ali said yesterday that his family were devastated at how Mr Hakim had been treated by his father.

"He [Mr Fareed] has taken and taken. His son had the most difficult life, he had the most unluckiest childhood. The last six months he was really sad."

Mr Hakim's lawyer, Isaac Koya, said he did not know now what would happen to the disputed estate. He said he did not know if Mr Hakim had written a will, or indicated a beneficiary in the event of his own death.

"We'll try to get a hearing, but I can't say when - it's just got a lot more complicated - it could take years."

Mr Fareed would not comment last night.