UK not to reopen money-laundering case against Altaf

LONDON: Scotland Yard will not re-open investigation into the money-laundering case involving MQM-London chief Altaf Hussain and five others unless Pakistan provides credible and compelling new evidence along with its appeal to the police for re-investigation.

Reports have said that the Pakistani government has asked the British government to reopen money laundering case against Altaf Hussain but there is no chance that the Scotland Yard will take this request seriously unless Pakistan comes up with a legal case – an opportunity that Pakistani authorities failed to utilise while the investigation into the case against MQM leader was alive till around three months ago when the police decided on “no further action” against the troubled MQM leader.

Trusted sources in the police have said that re-investigation into the MQM money-laundering case is not possible because any re-investigation will have to be justified on the “public interest ground” which will be impossible to establish unless there is new evidence and “sufficient new grounds” to re-open a closed investigation. The police source said that any new investigation will cost money which taxpayers will have to foot and that must be justified. That argument puts the ball in Pakistani court.

However, a number of options are available to Pakistan if it’s serious in getting the money-laundering case re-investigated and some of these are: writing to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPPC); hiring local criminal lawyers to file case against the police in the London High Court; bringing civil prosecution; seeking help from the UK authorities under mutual legal assistance as well as through civil action and involving the international legal forums such as the United Nations.

But Pakistan’s engagement – or the lack of it - in the money-laundering case over three years shows that Pakistani authorities will not move beyond writing letters and getting into news headlines, experts believe.

Scotland Yard detectives assess that Pakistan lacks seriousness and will not avail any of the legal options it can avail and hence there is a consensus in the police that not only the investigation will not be opened but the evidence that the police has here will not be shared with the Pakistani authorities.

Source in the police have told The News that a re-investigation would be “unjustifiable on public interest grounds” unless Pakistan produces damning evidence showing that the MQM-London leader laundered proceeds of crime from Pakistan to the UK.

When asked if the police will review the decision that concluded the cases against Altaf Hussain, Muhammad Anwar, Sarfraz Merchant and others in the middle of October 2016, a source told that there was no such chance unless a completely new scenario emerges involving completely new evidence.

He explained that during the course of the investigation into Altaf Hussain and others, all “reasonable lines of enquiry have been exhausted, including international enquiries”.

The source said that since 2013 officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit investigated allegations of money laundering and during uring the course of the investigation: Six peoplewere arrested; 11 other people were interviewed under caution; a total of 28 interviews were conducted at police stations of persons under investigation; over 100 witness statements were taken; nine premises were searched which were located in the South and North of England.

The case, said the police, was dropped because “having examined all of the evidence the MPS has accepted that there is insufficient evidence to prove that the money seized was the proceeds of crime or was intended for use in unlawful conduct”.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that Pakistan was concerned at the London Metropolitan Police's withdrawal of a money laundering case against the founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and other party leaders but detectives here say that Pakistani government sources didn’t cooperate fully with the police investigation and failed to provide even basic information that could have helped the police.

When The News asked The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) its views on Pakistan’s request, a spokesman said that it was a matter between Scotland Yard and Pakistani authorities. Barrister Rashid Aahmed and Barrister Zeeshan Hussain agreed that there is little, if any, chance of any charges being brought unless some compelling new evidence emerges.

“We asked whether the British government would respond to a request from the Pakistani government in relation to information held by the British so far as any money laundering investigation is concerned,” they said: “There is a memorandum of understanding as between the two governments in relation to allegations of criminal offences which involve cross-border crimes. Such a memorandum clearly exists for alleged drug and terrorism offences. If asked through proper means, the British would pass on any relevant material that they may have to support any proposed official enquiry or prosecution in Pakistan.”