By TONY STICKLEY
A youth who witnessed the slaying of most of his family is embroiled in a legal wrangle with his father over his inheritance.
Abu Saad Hakim was aged 8 when his mother, brother and sister were butchered by his mother's partner, Mohammed Yakub, at their Kingsland home in February
1990.
He suffered severe knife wounds in the attack. Yakub, a 25-year-old slaughterman, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders.
Now a young man of 18, Abu Hakim is fighting for his mother's estate.
He is suing his father, Mohammed Fareed, also known as Mohammed Fareed Hakim, for more than $200,000 he says his father took from the estate of his mother, Atika Fareed In the High Court at Auckland yesterday, Justice Robertson adjourned an application for judgment against Mr Fareed by the youth's lawyer, Isaac Koya.
But he ordered that Mr Fareed, who did not appear, be replaced as a trustee of the estate by the youth's grandmother.
In his statement of claim, Abu Hakim says that his mother and father, who separated in 1989, sold their home in Masterton and divided their assets equally. He moved to Auckland with his mother, brother and sister and the family bought a house in School Rd, Kingsland.
According to the statement of claim, his mother had made a will in November 1988 leaving all her estate to her husband.
However, after their separation, she had her solicitor draw up a new will naming her children as beneficiaries, but she was murdered before signing it.
The statement of claim says that, after the murders, there was a meeting with Abu Hakim's wider family, including his father, where the solicitor revealed the change of will.
"It was understood by all present at the meeting, including the defendant, that the plaintiff was the sole beneficiary of his mother's estate," said Mr Koya in the statement of claim.
The boy's father was nominated one of two trustees and allegedly undertook to administer the estate in the best interests of his son.
However, Mr Fareed applied for, and was granted, probate in terms of his wife's earlier 1988 will without telling any of the family.
In 1994, at the age of 13, Abu Hakim was sent to England to pursue Islamic studies. While he was away, in 1996, his father allegedly sold his mother's Kingsland property for $224,000 without telling any of the family, who thought nothing was amiss.
When he discovered the sale, the murdered woman's father, Hamsat Ali, asked Mr Fareed to account for the proceeds of the sale and for rental income of around $250 a week from 1990 to 1996.
But the statement of claim says Mr Fareed flatly refused to provide any details.
In an affidavit, Mr Ali said he understood that Mr Fareed now claimed that the 1988 will was valid and that the couple had intended to become reconciled and live together again.
Mr Ali added that, after selling the house, Mr Fareed and his new wife went on a world tour.
Abu Hakim is seeking full compensation for the losses he has suffered through his father's alleged dishonesty.
