Annex 145
Letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards from Mr Jaffer A Kapasi OBE DL MKD
I am writing further to your letter of 25 May
2000, and apologise for the delay in responding to you. I was
waiting for my solicitor Mr Mark Stephens to approve the letter
before I send it to you.
You say in you letter that you want to make
sure that there was no misunderstanding after your conversation
with my solicitor Mr Mark Stephens. There does appear to be some
misunderstanding from what you set out, at length in your letter,
which I feel I must clarify.
You say in your third paragraph of the letter
that I wrote to you on 3 May "but provided no account".
I asked you for a copy of the letter you referred to precisely
so provided so that I could consider it, but you refused. Perhaps
you will reconsider it now.
In the fourth paragraph of your letter, you
state that I arranged to see you on 25 May subject to confirming
a time with my solicitor. It is fairer to say that due to your
requests that I meet with you and was prepared to try and arrange
a meeting but subject to my solicitor's advice and availability
as I had not had the opportunity to speak to her about it.
On the second page of your letter you say that
I said that my solicitor Ms Melville-Brown "misinterpreted"
my instructions. It is fairer to say that I believe that there
was a "misunderstanding".
Finally one matter which you have not raised
in your letter is that when we spoke on 24 May, you said to me
"I have the power to arrest you if you refuse to come to
any meeting" and that I hope your solicitor is aware of it.
As I am sure you will appreciate, this caused
me some concern. I would like to clarify that any perceived hesitancy
on my part to meet you is purely due to my concern over Sir Peter
Soulsby's motives in attempting to involve me in this matter in
the first place. As I explained to my solicitors, I feel very
much like the earth trampled beneath the feet of two fighting
bull elephants. I am sure you will appreciate, I am simply trying
to seek proper advice, now that I have, through the actions of
others, become involved.
I think that in the circumstances it is best
that all further communications be through my solicitors. I have
asked Mr Mark Stephens to get in touch with you when he is back
from abroad by the 14 June 2000.
16 June 2000
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