MQM-London chief’s plea to drop terror case on health ground rejected

LONDON: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has rejected MQM founder Altaf Hussain’s application that he was physically and mentally unfit to stand terrorism trial in January 2022.

He had applied a month ago to the CPS to abort the upcoming terrorism trial altogether. He contended that he was suffering from several physical and mental illnesses rendering him unable to stand the trial on charges of resorting to hate speech and encouraging an act of terrorism in Pakistan in August 2016. The speech had allegedly incited the MQM workers to take law into their hands. Later, the MQM split into MQM-Pakistan and MQM-London.

Altaf Hussain wrote to the CPS that he had recently suffered from Covid-19 and went through an extremely difficult health situation which has affected his health and state of mind overall, therefore the trial should be cancelled and the case dropped.

Altaf Hussain’s legal team produced his medical reports, showing him as seriously ill and mentally and physically unable to cope with the rigour of a trial. Rejecting his application, the CPS informed Altaf Hussain that it didn’t believe that he was unfit to stand the trial. The CPS confirmed that the terrorism trial will go ahead as scheduled already to start on January 31, 2022, and will last for about three weeks.

The CPS gave no reason why it didn’t believe the version of Altaf Hussain. The MQM leader had spent nearly a month in Barnet Hospital from mid-December last year to January 12, 2021 after being taken in an ambulance for suffering "serious" COVID-19 symptoms.

Altaf Hussain has been charged under section 1(2) of the Terrorism Act (TACT) 2006 with encouraging terrorism, according to the Metropolitan Police, for inciting acts of terrorism in Karachi through his August 2016 speech.

The charge as stated by the UK police is that Hussain "On 22 August 2016 published a speech to crowds gathered in Karachi, Pakistan which were likely to be understood by some or all of the members of the public to whom they were published as a direct or indirect encouragement to them to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism and at the time he published them, intended them to be so encouraged, or was reckless as to whether they would be so encouraged."

The Met Police said: “Hussain was previously arrested on 11 June 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 as above.”