Labour questions Mates support for Nadir
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Your support makes all the difference.LABOUR is demanding that Michael Mates, a Northern Ireland minister, explain why he intervened on behalf of Asil Nadir, the fugitive businessman.
Mr Mates gave Nadir a watch last month inscribed 'Don't let the buggers get you down' and wrote on several occasions to the Attorney General questioning the way the Serious Fraud Office was handling the case.
Nadir, who faced 13 charges of fraud and false accounting involving more than pounds 30m, jumped his pounds 3.5m bail this month and fled to northern Cyprus. SFO sources have indicated that he did so because an alleged pounds 3.5m plot to try to bribe the trial judge was discovered.
In letters to the Attorney General since Nadir was arrested in December 1990, Mr Mates queried the behaviour of SFO officers and criticised the delay in bringing the case to court.
Nadir was a supporter of the Tory party and has claimed that he donated pounds 1.5m to central office funds, but he was not a constituent of Mr Mates.
Alistair Darling, Labour City spokesman, said yesterday: 'Michael Mates is a minister of the Crown. I find it surprising that he should be taking up Asil Nadir's case, and doing so shortly before he disappeared from this country.' Doug Hoyle, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, called for an explanation or Mr Mates's resignation.
A source close to Nadir said that the Turkish Cypriot businessman had not invited Mr Mates's support. Mr Mates telephoned Nadir on a number of occasions this year to invite him to breakfast. But Nadir did not go.
However, Nadir's barrister, Anthony Scrivener QC, said Mr Mates's intervention was welcome and 'appropriate to his responsibilities as a Member of Parliament'. Mr Mates telephoned on a number of occasions to check certain facts. In one letter he asked the Attorney General why the SFO had refused to send officers to Cyprus to review evidence. The SFO had told Nadir that this was not possible because Britain does not recognise the self-declared Turkish republic of northern Cyprus.
'As far as I was concerned he was a conscientious MP,' said Mr Scrivener. 'Without MPs taking an interest, we would not have had the Guildford Four or Birmingham Six freed. I hope that this is not going to deter other MPs from doing their duty.'
Mr Scrivener also said that Mr Mates was not alone in giving Nadir a watch. On 6 April, he said, Nadir's trustees-in- bankruptcy raided the tycoon's house. 'Mr Nadir waved goodbye, and they saw his watch and decided to take that with them. A number of people rallied round and gave him watches. Mr Mates only spent pounds 10 or pounds 15. It was a joke, of no value whatsoever.'
Mr Mates was not available for comment yesterday.
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