Keith Vaz and the damning letter: How senior Labour MP 'abused his
position' to help crooked lawyer in court
By Stephen Wright and Richard Pendlebury
Last updated at 2:13 AM on 16th March 2009
Damning evidence of how senior Labour MP Keith Vaz intervened in a court
case on behalf of a crooked friend can be revealed today.
Mr Vaz wrote to a High Court judge trying to halt proceedings against a
firm which had lavished hospitality on him and his family.
Astonishingly, he signed it in his official capacity as chairman of the
Home Affairs Select Committee, which has a key role in law-and-order
issues.
The MP will now be under pressure to step down as committee chairman
amid accusations that he tried to interfere with the legal system and
exploited his status to try to stop the case.
The existence of Mr Vaz's extraordinary letter to the High Court was
revealed by the Mail last September, but only now can full details be
disclosed.
The MP for Leicester East was intervening on behalf of solicitor
Shahrokh 'Sean' Mireskandari who, following revelations in this
newspaper last year that he had convictions in the U.S. and bogus legal
qualifications, has been suspended from practising law in Britain.
At the time that Mr Vaz wrote to the judge, Mireskandari'
Dean and Dean, was involved in a long-running and costly legal dispute
with an airline over a £400,000 legal bill which threatened the
solicitor with bankruptcy.
In the letter, written to the High Court on June 19 last year, Mr Vaz
said: 'We are deeply concerned about the apparent way in which this
ethnic-minority firm of solicitors has been dealt with. We have received
a number of complaints from community representative authorities about
this matter.
'The matter is now before the OJC (Office for Judicial Complaints).
The letter, written by Mr Vaz's office on House of Commons notepaper,
concluded: 'In such circumstances it seems appropriate that the hearing
should be adjourned pending the conclusion of the OJC's investigation.
Former Europe Minister Mr Vaz did not receive the consent of fellow
committee members to make his extraordinary attempt to help the
convicted conman, a notorious serial litigant whose firm was on the
brink of losing its battle with Angel Airlines.
Nor did Mr Vaz reveal in his letter to the High Court that he had a
close, mutually beneficial relationship with the solicitor - a Labour
Party donor.
At Mireskandari'
matches, pop concerts and a trip to the Bolshoi Ballet.
Legal sources said the judge was furious at what he perceived to be
'political interference' and rejected the plea.
Yesterday there were calls for a new sleaze investigation into the
affair. An inquiry, launched last autumn by Parliamentary Standards
Commissioner John Lyon, cleared Mr Vaz of any wrongdoing. It was
condemned as a whitewash.
Tory justice spokesman Dominic Grieve said: 'If true, the fact that
Keith Vaz wrote as chairman of the Home Affairs Committee must cast real
doubt on his continuing as chair.'
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable also cast doubt on Mr Vaz's
future as committee chairman. He said: 'This is an extraordinary and
worrying revelation.'
Referring to the activities of Mr Vaz's crooked friend Mireskandari, he
added: 'I think ordinary members of the public might well worry how the
authorities can pursue solicitors who have been abusing their position,
when this type of intervention has taken place.'
Ex-parliamentary sleazebuster Sir Alistair Graham said: 'I am really
surprised that an experienced chairman of the Home Affairs Select
Committee should seek to use his position in such a way when he clearly
had a personal conflict of interests.
'I would have thought that the committee would want to question the
chairman about him using his position in clearly such an inappropriate
way.'
Sir Alistair, former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public
Life, added: 'I think it is a serious error of judgment that he
attempted to inferfere in the civil judicial process when so close to
the individual involved in that process. I would be surprised if there
is not a further complaint to John Lyon about him not declaring such
extensive hospitality.
Virendra Sharma, the Labour MP for Ealing Southall - who was persuaded
by Mr Vaz to co-sign the letter to the High Court judge - has publicly
accused him of misleading him over the extent of his friendship with
Mireskandari, who has been suspended by the Solicitors Regulation
Authority for suspected dishonesty and accounting malpractice.
Last night Mr Vaz refused to explain why he had signed the letter to the
High Court as chairman of the Home Affairs Committee.
He said: 'The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has considered
all the evidence on this matter by the Daily Mail and dismissed the
complaints in full. I have nothing to add.'
http://www.dailymai
letter-How-senior-
court.html
Monday, 16 March 2009
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