LONDON: International law specialist Toby Cadman has said that Pakistan has “compelling evidence” on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain’s involvement in money-laundering.
Toby Cadman spoke to Geo News exclusively at Heathrow Airport after visiting Pakistan for two days to meet the senior officials of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) who registered a case of money-laundering against the MQM’s London-based leader on the complaint of Sarfraz Merchant.
He said that he met delegates from two institutions working on the MQM related case to discuss “various cases against mom and Altaf Hussain, I was impressed with the level of professionalism and how far the investigation has advanced and the quality of investigation that has been collected, which, I believe is a comprehensive file that they now have which we can present to the Metropolitan Police.”
He said that his visit was in the follow up to his meeting with the Scotland Yard in London last week where he handed over his client Sarfraz Merchant’s FIR copy to the police. He said he visited Pakistan to discuss with Pakistani officials the evidence they have and to assess it which could assist the police inquiries in this country.
Toby Cadman said: “The evidence that I have seen is compelling and it puts into question the decisions that were made by the Met police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the past , and of course they will have to reconsider their position now, as we just saw a couple of days ago that the Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said that the Met police and the CPS will be given all the resources that they need to investigate the incitement cases and of course we will be going back to the Met police over the next couple of days to discuss the money-laundering allegations.”
He said during his interaction with the Pakistani investigation authorities, he looked at a number of different cases which are currently being investigated and on which cooperation between the UK and Pakistan exists. “I can confirm the hate speech and incitement was amongst those discussions, as was the allegation of money-laundering and proceeds of crime.”
Toby Cadman said that this was the first such meeting that he have had with the Pakistani authorities. “It will be part of on-going relationship which I will be raising between the UK and the Pakistani authorities. I am impressed with the quality of evidence and there are investigations which still need to be carried out, and I will be assisting the Pakistani authorities as much as I can.”
The lawyer said the money-laundering investigation in the UK has been “suspended but certainly hasn’t been closed and all those who were suspects in the beginning remain suspects”. Those who were investigated during the famous money-laundering investigation included Altaf Hussain, Sarfraz Merchant, Muhammad Anwar, Tariq Mir and two others.
Toby Cadman said that he will be requesting the Met police to “conduct investigations on urgent basis, based on the material they have and if they consider that they have insufficient evidence to continue the matter then that’s something we can take up with the Pakistani authorities to ensure that they have all of the evidence. Its very clear the evidence that Pakistan has is detailed and comprehensive and in my professional opinion meets all the requirement under English law”.
When asked what caused the issues between the UK and Pakistan and why there was no cooperation between the two countries, Toby Cadman said that he can only comment about the present and its clear that Pakistani authorities are serious in relation to these investigations. “Looking forward it’s important to focus on what needs to be done and to ensure that the UK and Pakistan cooperate with each other and that they work as a joint investigation steam and that’s what I have to achieve.”
He said his trip to Pakistan was the first trip to conduct assessment of the evidence to make an assessment of what has been done so far by Pakistani authorities and what needs to be done. “I will be going back to the Met police as a matter of urgency detailing all the deviance that we have and explaining all of the deviance that will be coming and then advising my colleagues in Pakistan on what will be required under the English law when they carry out an investigation and how it can be presented under English law.”
