Journalist grilled over phone-hacking

NOTW journalist grilled about phone-hacking

 

The lawyer of Mohammad Asif grilled the prosecution's chief witness - former News of the World journalist Mazhar Mahmood - as to whether he knew of any phone-hacking during his undercover investigation in the alleged spot-fixing trial on Wednesday. And he also became the latest to try to discredit agent Mazhar Majeed.

It was the most fraught session so far in the six days of the trial, in which Salman Butt and Asif face charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord's test in August last year when they allegedly conspired with Majeed, teenage fast bowler Mohammad Amir and other people unknown to bowl pre-determined no-balls. Butt and Asif deny the charges.

Alexander Milne QC, the barrister of Pakistan fast bowler Asif, quizzed Mahmood on how he came to begin his covert sting investigation. Mahmood replied that he had received information from a source (whose identity he kept secret), who he had known for a long time. He added there was an agreement that there would be payment to the source on publication of his information.

Given the developments in this year's closure of the News of the World, due to illegal phone-hacking methods used to acquire exclusive stories for the newspaper, Milne pressed Mahmood on whether he had any knowledge of hacking and whether the origin of his initial information come from hacked text messages.

"Is this not hacked material?" Milne asked. "Downloading texts from a telephone without the knowledge of the person who owns that telephone is illegal."

Milne added: "I'm asking you if there is anybody at the News of the World who has hacked evidence that might be of relevance to this case and which would be disclosable?"

Mahmood, speaking from behind a screen for the third consecutive day in the witness box and becoming slightly defensive because of the questioning, said: "I had no idea about any phone hacking…prior to doing anything with the information I received, I spoke to the lawyer at the newspaper."

Milne also suggested to Mahmood that he met with Asif after the controversy was published, while posing as a lawyer by the name of Imran Sheikh. Milne also suggested to Mahmood that he was spotted in Lahore between December and January earlier this year by Asif, despite telling the court he had not visited Pakistan in that time. Mahmood vehemently denied both suggestions and agreed to submit his passport to the court for checks.

"Not only is he (Asif) a match-fixer, but he is a liar," was one of Mahmood's angry responses. "He's been banged to rights as far as I'm concerned and I have no desire to meet him."

Milne opened his address by first asking Mahmood about his experiences with Majeed, the agent at the centre of the trial, and referred to a number of bizarre claims and boasts by Majeed, which was a similar line of questioning taken by the legal team of former Pakistan captain Salman Butt.

In his line of questioning, Milne was implying that Mahmood should have realised Majeed was a fantasist. Milne suggested to Mahmood that "he made as much effort to impress you as you were to impress him, with all the names that were dropped".

Milne added: "He claimed to know everyone at Sky Sports, as well as Roger Federer and Brad Pitt…he had an Aston Martin, a fleet of cars and a big house. He was always 'bigging' himself up and told you his house cost £1.8 million."

Mahmood was asked by Milne whether he believed all of his boasts, to which Mahmood answered: "It was of no interest to us. I was only interested in the criminality of the people involved."