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Letter
to Mr George Galloway MP from the Chairman of the previous Committee
on Standards and Privileges
The Committee have considered
your letter to them of 14 August and I have been directed by them
to ask you further questions.
The Committee have asked
me to thank you for your letter but to express regret that you
chose, in most cases, to give general answers rather than to reply
directly to each question.
A. Referring to my letter
to you of 7 August, your reply to questions 1 and 2 indicates
that you did not provide services which would require registration
or declaration and that you never received any remuneration or
expenses. You have maintained consistently to us and to the Commissioner
that all payments were made by way of reimbursement. In the transcript
made by the reporter of The Mail on Sunday of an interview
with Mr Al Mass'ari, Mr Al Mass'ari refers to expenditure through
you of "£1,000 monthly, something like £1,500"
and is also recorded as saying "Galloway was receiving about
£1,000 per month". To clarify earlier answers:
(1) Were the payments
made to you personally or to Hawk?
(2) Did Hawk have
a bank account? If so can the Committee see the bank statements?
Did it have any accounts, or any record of transactions of any
kind? If so can the Committee see them?
(3) If the payments
were to you personally rather than Hawk can the Committee see
documentary proof of your expenditure and receipts?
B. You told the Commissioner
that references in the transcript to the part time services of
a secretary were a misunderstanding but that you did pay for a
bodyguard for Mr Al Mass'ari - who is also referred to in
the transcript. Was the bodyguard hired by you directly or did
you use an agency? How was the bodyguard (or the Agency) paid?
If he was paid by you do you have any records of payment? If
employed directly, was he employed by you, Hawk, or Mr Al Mass'ari?
You also told the Commissioner
that you paid for occasional services of academics, as well as
airline tickets, advertisements and publicity material. Have
you any record, for example, of your payments (and reimbursement)
to the senior academics at the School of Oriental and African
Studies referred to in your letter to the Commissioner of 28 May?
What other payments for work done were made by you? Can you
provide documentary evidence of your payments for such work and
for the travel and advertising costs you referred to (and for
their reimbursement)?
C. You stated in your letter
of 14 August that Hawk never traded and that no payments were
made into the company from anyone or anywhere and that the original
sum of £5,000 was spent on a visit to Palestine and on a
large stock of stationery.
(1) How often did
you send letters in the name of the company?
(2) Were you the
only user of its notepaper?
(3) Have you used
the notepaper for any correspondence not on behalf of the CDLR?
(4) On what date
did you last act or correspond in the name of, or on behalf of,
Hawk?
D. Referring to your reply
to question 5 in my letter to you of 7 August:
(1) What did the
House of Commons envelopes you used contain?
(2) Did you use
the free postal facilities provided to Members in connection with
any of the services provided to the CDLR, Dr Al-Fagih, or Mr Al
Mass'ari or to circulate material which they originated?
(3) Were the envelopes
used pre-paid or did you pay for the postage?
We shall grateful for your further
assistance.
12 November 1996
Reply
from Mr George Galloway MP
Thank you for your letter
of 12th November 1996 which I received today. For the record
I had been expecting it since my colleague, Jimmy Wray MP, told
me on Monday night that a journalist had spoken to him about your
Committee's decision to write to me again.
I am sorry that the Committee
thought my 14th August 1996 letter too general. I shall endeavour
to be as specific as I can.
I refer to your paragraph
A.
Firstly the reporter referred
to was not from the Mail on Sunday but was a freelance journalist
who duped Professor Al Massari into believing he was doing a piece
for the Sunday Times. This was false as the Deputy Foreign Editor
of the Sunday Times confirmed to me. The reporter subsequently
did trail the story along Fleet Street including to the Mail on
Sunday but no newspaper was prepared to publish from the "transcript"
the reporter ultimately produced.
In this transcript; and
I refer you to the third page, line 12, to the fourth page, line
84, to the fifth page, line 120, to the sixth page, line 149,
and from the sixth page, line 157. In all of these references
Professor Al Massari clearly states that all the financial affairs
of the CDLR were handled by Dr Saad Al-Fagih. You have a letter
from Dr Al-Fagih explaining the exact nature of any financial
transactions between them and me.
In your point 1 of paragraph
A you ask "Were the payments made to you personally or to
Hawk?".
This question flows from
the false premise I have dealt with above. Professor Al Massari
never passed to me a brass farthing. Dr Al-Fagih did, on the
basis outlined in his letter to you.
Moreover as I have repeatedly
told you, Hawk never traded, it follows that no payments could
have been made to it.
In this regard I refer you
to Professor Al Massari's letter to my solicitor which you have,
in which he makes it clear, in his own words, inter alia, that
his dealings with me "during all that period George Galloway
worked with me as an individual not as a representative of any
company" and further "neither Mr Galloway or I obtained
any financial benefit from each other".[32]
With reference to your paragraph
A no.2.
Yes, Hawk did have a bank
account with the NatWest Bank and of course you may see its bank
statements if the bank records still exist for a defunct company
for that period. I have written to them today - copy enclosed
- asking them to furbish me with copies of all the records and
when they arrive I will arrange for one of your staff to pick
them up from me. There is the question of costs involved in this
and I believe that your Committee should meet them. The company
produced no accounts, never traded, was moribund and wound up
in the Autumn of 1995.
With reference to your paragraph
B.
The bodyguards, academics,
fly posters, were all employed by the CDLR in the shape of Dr
Saad Al-Fagih.
Occasionally, for example,
some of the academics were given their payment by me in the form
of cash given to me for the purpose of Dr Al-Fagih.
It is unlikely that he kept
records of this not least because the academics were working secretly,
some of them in Institutions in receipt of large sums of largesse
provided by the Saudi dictatorship.
I will endeavour, however,
to provide evidence of payments I made for airline tickets and
advertisements by writing to The Guardian, the Glasgow Herald,
Tribune and The Morning Star asking if they can furbish me with
copies of records of payments made by me to them via my credit
card or personal cheque book. Again, I must say that I feel your
Committee should shoulder any costs involved in this. I have
written to my travel agent asking them for any similar documentation
which they may have.
I enclose copies of these
letters.
With reference to your paragraph
C no. 1.
I could not possibly tell
you have often I sent letters in the name of the company except
to say that it would be a small number.
With reference to your paragraph
C no. 2.
I was not the only user
of its note paper, others involved in the project also had access
to its note paper.
With reference to your paragraph
C no. 3.
I am not aware that I have
used the note paper on behalf of the CDLR. I cannot imagine why
I would have done so. If you mean has the notepaper been used
in relation to any cause other than the CDLR the answer is yes.
In late 1994, or early 1995, I wrote to the Westminster Foundation
for Democracy asking for support to produce Citrines "ABC
of Chairmanship" in Arabic for use in the emerging democracy
in Palestine. The offer was declined and there may well be others
which I do not now recollect.
With reference to your paragraph
C no. 4.
I do not know on what date
I last acted or corresponded in the name of Hawk. The large stock
of stationery earlier referred to remains in my possession the
reverse side of which is still used for dictation; indeed my secretary
is taking the dictation of this letter on the reverse side of
Hawk notepaper.
What I can say to you is
this, that before the company was wound up in the Autumn of 1995
it had ceased looking for projects and there would have been no
need for me to act on its behalf.
With reference to your paragraph
D no. 1.
The House of Commons envelopes
to which you refer contained a letter from me on House of Commons
notepaper outlining my views about the grave error in Government
policy in continuing to arm and support the Saudi dictatorship,
in continuing to depend on the ailing Saudi economy and in succumbing
to the dictatorship's pressure to harass the Saudi opposition
in London. The envelope also contained the research work produced
by the academics previously referred to which buttressed that
case. This research material was published by the CDLR.
These envelopes were pre-paid.
I hope that these answers
have been specific enough and I reiterate my offer to meet you
at any time if your require further clarification.
With best wishes.
13 November 1996
ANNEX
Letter to Mr Oscar
Beuselinck from Professor Muhammad A S Al Mass'ari
DEFAMATORY
STATEMENT IN THE SOURAKIS MAGAZINE
AGAINST
MR GEORGE GALLOWAY MP AND MYSELF
I am Professor Muhammad
A S Al-Mass'ari and I am the Secretary General and Spokesman of
the Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights (CDLR).
Since early 1995 I have
been working closely with Mr George Galloway MP in a variety of
campaigns around the issues of tyranny, injustice and dictatorship
in Saudi Arabia generally and my rights to oppose that dictatorship
as a refugee in London specifically.
During all of that period
George Galloway worked with me as an individual not as a representative
of any company. To the best of my knowledge and belief Mr Galloway's
motivation was, solely, his hatred of the dictatorship and his
support for reform.
Neither I nor the CDLR had
any financial relationship with Mr Galloway.
Mr Galloway did not, as
alleged in the Sourakis magazine, support us financially, nor
act as a channel for foreign funding of our campaign. Neither
Mr Galloway no I obtained any financial benefits from each other.
The Sourakis allegations
are defamatory of myself as well as Mr Galloway, implying, as
they do, that I was in receipt of illicit foreign funds channelled
improperly through a British Member of Parliament. There is no
foundation for these allegations.
I confirm that the "Massari
Must Stay" campaign - the campaign against my deportation
- was run by Lord Avebury and Mr Galloway from Mr Galloway's office
at 7 Millbank. But it was run by them as individuals not on behalf
of any company and certainly not for any financial benefit on
the part of either gentlemen or myself.
I hope this will suffice
to guide you in any forthcoming litigation.
16 October 1996
32 See
Annex, p.xix. Back
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