Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain had his bail extended for one month on Thursday for a second time in relation to the incitement speech of August 2016 from London to a rally in Karachi.
A police source has told The News that the MQM founder and leader was asked to appear at the police station where he refused to answer questions and went for 'no comments' about the incitement speech inquiry after Pakistani authorities produced new material to Scotland Yard detectives investigating the case, the investigation on which continues.
Both the MQM and the police sources confirmed to The News that the MQM founder’s bail ends today and he was asked to appear at the police station in person to answer questions about the investigation, which is being led by officers from the Met's Counter Terrorism Command and is focused on a speech broadcast in August 2016 as well as other speeches previously broadcast by the same person.
After his arrest in June this year, the MQM founder was called again to appear at the police station to answer bail condition in second week of July 2019 but his bail at that time was extended through a letter by the police to his solicitors.
This time, the police had decided to call him to the police station which means that the police had new questions to ask and there are new lines of inquiry.
The police sources have confirmed to this correspondent that Altaf Hussain is under strict bail conditions while the investigation is on. He’s not allowed to address a crowd of people for fear of arousing them and he’s bound to stay at the designated address under curfew conditions from evening to morning. He cannot travel out of the UK without the police permission.
The MQM founder was arrested on June 11 2019 during a dawn raid at his home and taken to a south London police station. The Scotland Yard had said at that time that the MQM leader had been arrested on suspicion of intentionally encouraging or assisting offences contrary to Section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007.
- What is Section 44 -
Intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence
(1)A person commits an offence if—
• (a) he does an act capable of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence; and
• (b) he intends to encourage or assist its commission.
(2)But he is not to be taken to have intended to encourage or assist the commission of an offence merely because such encouragement or assistance was a foreseeable consequence of his act.
Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain appeared before a police station in London after he was summoned for questioning in a probe related to his alleged hate speeches relayed from the United Kingdom to his followers in Pakistan.Hussain arrived at the Southwark police station at around 10am local time and is currently present there, confirmed Mustafa Azizabadi of the MQM-London.
In June, the MQM founder was arrested from his London residence as part of the investigation into his alleged hate speeches. However, he was released on bail a day later by the British authorities without filing charges relating to the probe.
He was expected to appear before police today as his bail expired this month.
Speaking to reporters outside the police station, Hussain said: “I have trust in British law. I haven’t done anything wrong. I am not scared or afraid of anyone.”
“These are all fabricated cases. I am used to it,” he said.
The Metropolitan Police of London had raided Hussain’s residence on June 11, taken him into custody and shifted him to the Southwark police station, where he was questioned in the presence of his lawyers in connection with the probe that the police said was focused on a speech broadcast in August 2016 as well as other speeches.
After his release on bail, a source in MQM-London had told Dawn that the authorities had decided not to file charges but would continue with their investigation to get sufficient evidence or otherwise.
The MQM founder was arrested on suspicion of intentionally encouraging or assisting offences contrary to Section 44 (intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence) of the Serious Crime Act, 2007.
London-based Hussain has been a subject of various inquiries while living in self-exile for the past 27 years. He was first arrested on June 3, 2014, in connection with a money laundering probe and was released on bail after a couple of days.
In October 2016, the British authorities dropped the money laundering probe and returned a huge sum of cash recovered from Hussain’s home and office during separate raids in 2014.
Hussain was also interviewed by investigators probing the murder of Dr Imran Farooq, who was stabbed to death in London in 2010.
While a court had imposed a ban on Hussain's media coverage, his own party in Pakistan parted ways with him after he made an incendiary speech over phone on Aug 22, 2016. Since then, he has been facing an unannounced ban and his loyalists are not allowed to take part in political activities, or to even gather at the Nine Zero headquarters in Karachi's Azizabad which has been sealed off since 2016.
Pakistani authorities had complained to their British counterparts about Hussain’s incendiary speeches that according to them aimed at inciting his followers to violence.
