British High Court orders to confiscate former Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s property

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  Lutfur Rahman

The British High court has ordered confiscation of Lutfur Rahman’s property and asked him to submit details of his income and expenditure for the last five years along with income-tax returns for the last seven years.

Rahman’s lawyer Edward Mckinnon told the court that his client will appeal for judicial review. But Rahman was not present in court.

After Rahman was removed from office, Labour politician John Biggs was elected Mayor of Tower Hamlet on July 11. The court had ruled that Rahman defeated Biggs by resorting to ‘unfair practices.’

Rahman was born in Bangladesh in 1965 and moved to UK as a child. He joined the Labour Party in 1989 after a stint as a lawyer.

He is blamed for amassing huge powers after managing to institutionalise the practice of executive Mayor when he was the Labour leader in Tower Hamlets.

The proposal to change the status of the borough from one with a leader and cabinet to one with an executive mayor was initially opposed by all the main political parties and was an initiative only proposed and supported by the Respect Party led by George Galloway.

Respect Party and Islamic Forum Europe organised a petition to trigger a referendum for this change.

Rahman refused the Labour Party nomination for run for Mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2010 because the party was against the idea of executive mayor.

As an independent candidate, Rahman rode the support of the 32 percent Bangladeshi population in Tower Hamlets to become Mayor.

Soon after, he stood accused of hobnobbing with fundamentalist Muslim groups to retain influence and power in Tower Hamlets.

But the now-disgraced mayor of Tower Hamlets hit back, verbally attacking UK Local Government Minister Eric Pickles, saying he was proud to be controversial.

Pickles, the communities secretary, ordered a government-commissioned investigation that found evidence of financial irregularities in the Tower Hamlets council.

Three administrators were appointed to keep the local government department informed.

It also found a “lack of transparency” in the process of awarding grants.

The probe had accused Rahman of ‘inappropriate expenditure’ of public fund on his political advertising.

Source: Bd news24