Annex 118
Letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards from Sir Peter Soulsby
As promised, I am enclosing a copy of the bits
of taped telephone conversations between Hanif Asmal (then a City
Councillor), Keith Vaz MP and Councillor Merlyn Vaz.
It was Hanif Asmal himself who passed the tape
to me and I understood that the peculiar editing is his own. The
tape was used extensively by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme
in late 1995.
Asmal's address is ***
I am also enclosing the draft of my letter to
the then Town Clerk and the note I made following a telephone
conversation with Mr Kapasi in April 1994, I had already spoken
to Kapasi about his allegations but he was, and remained, fearful
of the consequences of making a formal complaint against Keith
Vaz. In my letter to the Town Clerk I concentrated on the City
Council issue, which was the alleged involvement of Councillor
Merlyn Vaz the former Chair of Property.
Having written the letter and got the allegation
at least partly on the record, the political upheaval in the City
Council preoccupied me for the subsequent 18 months and I didn't
follow up what action the Town Clerk took.
The "BD" referred to in the note is
Bhupen Dave—also mentioned on the tape. He was then the
Deputy Leader of the City Council and worked for the County Social
Services.
* * *
17 April 2000
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