Investigation
Police investigate bribery allegation made against lawyer in July 21 trial
A leading solicitor is being investigated by police over allegations of bribery after a senior judge raised concerns about her conduct.
Mudassar Arani will be the subject of a criminal inquiry into whether she attempted to bribe a defendant in the recent July 21 bomb trial and asked the man to change his case.
The investigation will be conducted by Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime Directorate. Depending on the outcome of that, she could face a charge of perverting the course of justice. That offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The Times has learnt that the investigation began this week after Mr Justice Fulford, the judge in the trial, expressed concerns about Ms Arani’s activities. Lawyers for Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, the so-called fifth bomber who abandoned an explosive device on July 21, 2005, said during the trial that Ms Arani had attempted to bribe him to change his case. She was said in court to have sent Mr Asiedu £650 in cash and a card marking the Islamic festival of Eid with the message “lots of love Mudassar Arani”.
It was further alleged that documents were smuggled to Mr Asiedu inside Belmarsh jail suggesting how he might change his defence case to tally with statements made by other defendants who were Ms Arani’s clients. At the end of the trial last month, the judge was highly critical in public of what he said were delaying tactics by Ms Arani and her clients which had prolonged the trial unnecessarily.
But it has now emerged that he raised the matter of the alleged bribery privately with prosecution lawyers. A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed that the issue had been referred to it by the judge, who also sits on the International Criminal Court. The CPS passed his concerns to the Metropolitan Police. Scotland Yard said: “We have been asked by the CPS to look into allegations relating to the conduct of a solicitor.
“The allegations include sending monies intended to bribe a codefendant and that the solicitor, and defendants she represented, pressurised a codefendant to alter his account.”
Both the CPS and Scotland Yard emphasised that the inquiry would not involve counter-terrorism lawyers or officers who frequently have contact with Ms Arani.
Any police file would be passed to the specialist crime division at the CPS. Lawyers there would decide whether there is sufficient evidence to press charges against Ms Arani.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority said that it was aware of the complaints against Ms Arani and the planned police investigation. But it said she was free to continue in practice while the investigation continued.
Ms Arani denied any wrongdoing. In a statement, she said: “The allegations are completely wrong. They remain as false now as when they where first made in March by a lawyer acting for a particular defendant.
“The allegations were never made in evidence by a single witness. In fact the particular defendant himself denied his own lawyer’s suggestion.”
Ms Arani’s clients in the case - Muktar Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, and Ramzi Mohammed, 25 - were convicted of conspiracy to murder by attempting to detonate suicide bombs on the London transport network. Each was jailed for life with a recommendation to serve 40 years before being considered for parole. The jury failed to reach a verdict on Mr Asiedu, 34, and he is scheduled to face a retrial at a date yet to be fixed.
Brief history
Mudassar Arani has built a lucrative legal practice defending Islamist terror suspects. Her small firm in Southall, West London, received more than £770,000 in legal aid payments last year. Clients include:
Abu Hamza al-Masri The hook-handed former imam of Finsbury Park mosque remains Ms Arani’s best-known client. He is serving a prison sentence for soliciting murder and inciting race hatred and fighting attempts to extradite him to the US to stand trial on terrorist charges. Ms Arani has represented Abu Hamza since the Charity Commission first challenged his stewardship of the North London mosque in the 1990s
Dhiren Barot A veteran al-Qaeda member currently serving life for plotting to carry out bomb attacks in London and New York. Barot, a Hindu convert to Islam, was recently attacked in prison by another inmate who threw boiling water in his face. Ms Arani was reported to have said after the attack that her client wanted “prisoner of war” status
Muktar Ibrahim The ringleader of the 21/7 bomb plot who was convicted last month. Ibrahim, who came to Britain as a teenage refugee, tried to blow himself up on a No 26 bus in East London on July 21, 2005. He had been trained in Pakistan to make hydrogen peroxide explosives but he mixed the ingredients incorrectly.
(Published by New York Times, August 31, 2007)
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