Altaf’s hate speech trial gets underway in London

LONDON: Former chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain went on trial on Monday at the Kingston Crown Court , for approximately three weeks in the hate speech case brought by the Crown Prosecution Service for his controversial speech inciting violence in Karachi in 2016.

He was brought to the court on a wheel chair. Hussain was defended by his lawyers at Corker Binning against the Crown’s lawyers. Scotland Yard had charged Hussain in October 2019 with a terrorism offence in a case related to his controversial speech relayed live from the United Kingdom to his followers in Pakistan on August 22, 2016.

The MQM founder, 68, was investigated by detectives from the Met Police’s Counter-Terrorism Command over his speech that caused riots in Karachi and attacks on news channels. He was arrested on June 11, 2019, on suspicion of intentionally encouraging or assisting offences contrary to Section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007. He was released on bail and subsequently charged. Hussain has denied the charge and says he will defend himself at the trial and during the cross-examination.

“Altaf Hussain [...], of Abbey View, Mill Hill, NW7, was charged under section 1(2) of the Terrorism Act (TACT) 2006 with encouraging terrorism,” the Met Police had said. Ahead of the trial, Hussain had written to the Crown Prosecution Service stating that his trial should not go ahead because he is unfit to stand terrorism trial in January 2022, but his application was rejected.