That mystery man who, we’re told, abused hapless Ahad Miah’s Facebook page by posting a salute to Hitler was also busy hacking into his Twitter account, it seems.
As a reminder, on July 15 last summer “someone” posted this image on Miah’s Facebook page:
Miah, a Tower Hamlets First candidate in last May’s elections and a friend of several senior figures in that “party”, immediately found himself in hot water with Mayor Lutfur Rahman. I’m told he admitted to neighbours he’d been an angry man during the Gaza crisis last summer and that he may have done things he now regretted. However, he then issued a statement on Facebook to say he had no idea how that picture got there. He said someone had gained access to his account.
Not many, if anyone at all, believed him.
I didn’t realise he also had a Twitter account. Perhaps he didn’t either. A reader of this blog sent me this Tweet that Miah posted on July 17, two days after that Facebook salute.
— Ahad Miah (@ahadmiah06) July 17, 2014
But enough said on Miah; he’s now history and I doubt very much we’ll see him again trying to make his way in politics. The reason he popped on this blog was because he was part of a DCLG-funded weekend away in Suffolk discussing faith and “promoting integration” with the Salvation Army.
You’ll recall that the weekend at Kentwell Hall was paid for by a £2,000 grant from the Near Neighbours fund, which is from a DCLG pot and administered by the Church Urban Fund.
The grant was submitted by Nick Coke of the Salvation Army in Stepney. His application outlined the purpose of the trip (which was meant to be to Devon at that point and thus requiring quite a bit of diesel and a minibus):
A weekend away to deepen relationships, build understanding and develop plans for future working for 15 leaders from Stepney Salvation Army, Stepney Father’s Group and The Stifford Centre.
The work will have four main areas of impact:
1) Leadership development. The project will develop the capacity of individuals in each institution to work together with others for positive change in Stepney.
2) Cross-institutional relationships. The project will help to build a better working relationship between the Salvation Army, Stepney Father’s Group and The Stifford Centre on issues of shared concern.
3) Building a wider Stepney alliance of organisations. The project will help to build the momentum of a Stepney citizens movement that will seek to reach other institutions and build partnerships in the neighbourhood
4) Influence beyond Stepney. Our desire for the ‘film’ is to share our project with Muslims and Christians outside Stepney and to raise aspirations about what can be achieved in UK communities.
The 2 leaders of the work will be:
Captain Nick Coke – co-leader of The Salvation Army – has 12 years of experience living and working in Stepney. He has built a Salvation Army congregation in Stepney from scratch, is a co-chair of the Tower Hamlets branch of Citizens UK and has a proven track record of building relationships with people of all backgrounds and faith in Stepney.
Ishaque Uddin – leader of Stepney Father’s Group – has lived in Tower Hamlets for 25 years. He founded the group 10 years ago, has previous experience of inter-faith initiatives in Stepney and has been trained in community organising.
They will be supported by secondary leaders in their institutions and by the director of the Stifford Centre.
In my original post on Sunday I said the trip to Suffolk involved the Sally Army, the Stepney Fathers and the Stifford Centre. I said those three groups had been meeting for some time and that they had played badminton and socialised generally.
Well, the Stifford Centre trustees have been in touch and they’re really very angry. They say they’re not Bengali dominated (they are). They say they don’t have clandestine meetings (who mentioned clandestine?), they say they’re “transparent” (really, see a few sentences later), they say they don’t play badminton with the others….and that none of their “representatives” were on that weekend away.
This email came from Salman Alam and Ahbab Miah. The latter is the centre’s committee secretary, while the former is the centre’s director–the man Nick Coke said was supporting the grant application.
So this was curious. Might the grant application have been written on a false premise; might the Near Neiighbours fund have been misled? I asked the Stifford people if they’d had any involvement at all with the project. This is what they said:
We were consulted a long time ago by Salvation Army/Stepney Fathers Club representative about a possible Near Neighbours project involving a weekend away day and while that was an aspiration of the project, we had not heard more about the project development.
I asked them to be more specific about “a long time ago”. They said they “were unable to comment any further on this matter” and that they’d publish a statement in due course. That’s transparency for you.
I also asked Nick Coke for an explanation. I asked whether any Stifford people had been on the trip, whether his grant application had been made on a false premise, and why the venue had been changed from Devon to Suffolk. He said he’d been told to refer all questions to the Church Urban Fund. I’m awaiting their response. Maybe they need a weekend away to work it all out.
As for extended breaks, there might be a few in need of those after tomorrow’s Election Court verdict, which comes at 10.30am.
Many have their fingers crossed, many are praying. I’m informed this was being circulated day on a Whatsapp ‘Muslim Professionals Forum’ that includes Lutfur advisers:
Pls prey…
for 1st Muslim executive MAYOR of Britain.
Mayor Lutfur case
judgment tomorrow
The commissioner has decided that the judgement will be given tomorrow Thursday. He will disclose the decision on Thursday and has not given any indication either way.
Win or lose
We will respect Allah’s
Decision
He is the Master planer.
Preying? Couldn’t be planer.(sic)
Trial by Jeory 
Bang to rights! Weasel out of this you slimey little liar!
That’s aimed at Mish and Rahman!
As I’ve said, sometimes it’s best to come clean and apologise. This time Mr Miah has no excuse, case closed, reputation irrevocably damaged….What next? On the first flight to somewhere with no internet?
Oh, only 6 weeks after standing for election as a Tower Hamlets First councillor?
How you have the cheek to fly to Greece claiming to show solidarity against (amongst other things) fascism? How do you sleep at night?
Shame on you Ahad Miah and THF!
Shame, shame, shame!
Yes, I meant to make that point about Greece and fascism. I bet they’d like to see him again.
However, let’s hope he learns from this and stops being such a sheep.
And I can’t wait to see the video they made of their discussions on the Sally Army weekend.
Let’s hope that CC’s FoI request throws up the names of the people who invited our charming delegates to Athens so we can point out what they were really dealing with.
I doubt they’ll be invited again!
Please don’t be horrible Grim Reaper.
I am very willing to undertake pubic duties on behalf of the peoples of Tower Hamlets and fly to Greece in business class. Only I can properly communicate with dem for-inn-ers. Peaze tell de kouncil to send me spending money with dat ticket.
I promise to come back within 6 months or when dat money runs out.
P.S. Which factor sun cream should I pack ?
P.P.S. Kan anyone lend me their tourist guide so I no howe to get to dat meetings ?
Working tirelessly for dat peoples of Tower Hamlets
Innit tho!
Isn’t there a wider issue which is relevant to this?
Tower Hamlets First, as a political party (if that’s what it’s supposed to be) should act to discipline its members when they act in a way which is contrary to the law of the land.
If it does not, does that not make the party as culpable of racist behaviour as the person who was standing under their banner some six weeks earlier?
Where’s the evidence that THF have ever given any guidelines to their party members as to what they can and cannot do if they ever want to be politically involved and remain “above board” (i.e. avoid investigations and legal actions and legal fees – need I go on?).
At the end of the day it goes to standards in public life – of candidates, of political parties, of political managers and of the people who lead those parties.
It’s a bit too easy to absolve yourself from accountability by pleading ignorance. I used to work for a company in Boston, and on commencement of employment had a 2 day induction which included 1 hour on the company, and the rest of the time spent telling me about the prevention of sexual harassment.
This was due to staff being fired for sexually harassing colleagues, then suing their employer after dismissal, as nobody told them it wasn’t allowed.
Politicians really should have a sound moral barometer, if not, then party selection processes need to be robust enough to weed out the nut jobs, and in Ahad Miah’s case, the downright thick as two planks political social climbers.
Having read his Facebook statement, what good would he have been responding to constituant’s emails and dealing with council departments? Then again, THF does like lavishing our taxes on a plethora of advisors and support staff…..
Thanks for these updates, Mr Jeory
I really appreciate the time you put in. Democracy can only benefit with people like you about. Fantastic stuff!
KP
Kevin Pritchard
Twitter.com/desmanage
Morning all.
Computer Misuse Act 1990 makes it an offence to interfere with a computer system.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/contents
Mr Ahad Miah ……………..
Which police station did you report the crime and on what date ?
Ah, but there lies the rub…..Logging this with the police would involve – A) Speaking to the Police – B) Writing an email or going online – As Ahad Miah is unable to do either effectively, and it’s unlikely any of his former chums/brethren are likely to come running to his assistance, he seems a bit stuck?
Perhaps by some bizarre twist of fate, the hacker who was so kind to post such vile Nazi loving anti Semitic propaganda on both his Facebook and Twitter accounts (whilst also posting pictures of him kissing babies and taking his son to the park etc), will log the crime on his behalf. Miracles can happen, inshallah!
On another topic, I wonder what Miah’s plans are now? Life can’t by easy in shadwell and Wapping after being exposed as a filthy-fascist-lovin-liar! I rekon he’ll be adopting a disguise from now on. Perhaps a full coverage burqa? I’d go for small, and get it hemmed to stop it dragging on the floor. You could easily fit into ladies shoes, so finding a matching pair won’t be an issue. Just the handbags left to worry about now. Watney Market is only a short distance away….,
Similarly, posting anti-semetic images is a racially aggravated offence.
In the story about the Teacher in Tower Hamlets here…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2958711/Teacher-fined-posting-picture-Hitler-words-right-Facebook.html
…you’ll notice that the photo the teacher shared was accompanied by remarkably similar words to those accompanying the picture from Miah’s twitter account. The picture however, is different.
I’m told the postings have been reported to the police.
As if the first image wasn’t bad enough, this image from Miah’s twitter account is particularly chilling and extremely offensive.
That’s not nice, he can’t help the way he looks, and we can’t all be blessed with Mahboob’s thick, and most photogenic coiffured face fuzz!
Sorry, you’re referring to his vile postings…. My mistake 😉
BTW – Ted is now in court and tweeting the result of the Tower Hamlets Election Court verdict
Go to https://twitter.com/TedJeory to follow – actually following Ted is a jolly good idea anyway – but particularly so this morning!
Rahman not a credible witness, Mawrey says. Alibor ‘arrogant’
The Wharf is also there
Is Alibor out of office now?
I should think so. I think this means a new election and/or the Commissioners take over entirely
Courts satisfied that agents of Rahman guilty of corrupt practices in respect of votes.
Very good point!
WOW! It’s happened – he’s going to barred from office!
Alibor and the (former) Mayor now unemployed.
This one sounds like it’s going to be a humdinger
I think they may be more than unemployed – I’m just sitting here wondering whether they’re going to prison.
Seize their passports and freeze their assets – this will be a costly exercise!
Triple WOW!
This will make all the law reviews
Even more WOW! Police now getting a pasting!
Ted has just gained 97 extra followers on Twitter in the last 20 minutes!
Re people outside and inside polling stations
Shame!
Yay!
This is incredible!
A very important point
Agreed. Let’s hope there are no repercussions.
Ted now has an extra 140 followers since he started tweeting.
The man to employ if you have a suspected electoral corruption?
That’s his fees increased.
This is going to be interesting
AND THE BIG ONE!
That means Lutfur Rahman is not the Mayor any longer, he’s banned from standing again and it’s very likely that in future he may not be able to practice as a solicitor
This is what happens when you ignore the law and ‘play the game’ for high stakes and bet on yourself and your charisma – and show complete contempt for the regulators.
Only one winning candidate for Labour, Helal Abbas Uddin. Unlike Biggs who let other people do the fighting and suing he stuck his neck out and won his case.
This gets even more interesting. It effectively means that all decisions taken by Rahman can now be contested on the basis that his election was corrupt.
Have I got that right? Comments from a legal bod please.
Correct. They can be challenged but would probably need to prove corruption in each decision.
Which presumably implies that all those likely to be implicated in terms of buying favour with a specific community within Tower Hamlets have got to be in the frame.
Those Commissioners are going to earn their fees!
another really excellent point
He’s now getting tough
Mawrey is now moving on to costs and Ted wants a break – however I think he’ll be back soon.
Sounds to me like Mawrey is going to make Rahman et al pay the petitioners costs. I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t. Their case has been entirely vindicated.,
Petitioners claimed that if they lost their costs are about £1M. If full costs are awarded to petitioners Rahman likely to be bankrupted as well as unemployed and facing criminal charges. Talk about a bad day at the office.
I still think there’s a very real chance he’s going to prison.
So far we have corruption, fraud – and maybe perjury?
Just remember Chris Huhne went to prison for lying to a court.
See the Evening Standard extract below – he’s awarded costs of at least £1m against Rahman with a requirement that he pays £250,000 into court pronto.
I’m guessing that’s because they’ll now do that thing where they inspect the costs being claimed? What are those people called – the ones who won’t allow petitioners or defendants to claim for stuff which isn’t allowable?
Taxation of costs, now known as Detailed Assessment following the Civil Procedure Act 1998
Tessa Jowell is as a big a crook as Rahman.
Whatever you may think of her the point about the people of Tower Hamlets deserving better is a good one.
True, but she couldn’t say anything other than that. Her comment is, to my eyes, a mere platitude, trotted out to show that she has been watching the case and pretending that she isn’t as much of a crook as Rahman.
How very odd that the verdict on this momentous and truly landmark case – which will be written about in English Law Books for years to come – has happened on St. George’s Day. I wonder if that was planned.
BTW Ted gained 220 followers in the space of 90 minutes. I’m guessing all the other reporters around the country were hanging off his every tweet! 🙂
The corrupt Alibor was one of 4 corrupt THF Councillors on the board of the insidious and parasitic organisation called Tower Hamlets Homes. The corrupt and former Mayor was also the only shareholder of the company. The corrupt Rabina Khan was formerly Cabinet Member for Housing. Residents will be asking some serious questions about what’s been going on there with their money as well.
That’s a very good point.
I keep thinking about all those contracts signed on the say so of Lutfur.
If the Election has been voided I’m almost certain all those contracts have also been voided.
This is the penalty a Council pays when they vest so much authority in the hands of a man – because if he turns out to be corrupt then there are sorts of things that come unstuck when he gets removed from office.
If the Contracts are done in the name of the Council and the Full Council has made the decision there’s no problem (I think) – but anything done by Lutfur acting as Mayor is in deep doodoo!
But I’m no lawyer and I’d love to hear from a qualified and practising person on this topic.
BBC has had another go – with a quote from Richard Mawrey, the Election Commissioner
rejoice
rejoice
rejoice
this is the best of days and surely the will of allah
INSHALLAH!!!!!💥💥💥💥💥
I wonder what he’s saying!
The Wharf has rushed to print – or possibly a keyboard
Looks like ALL the newspapers are going to go BIG on this – but I guess we always expected the Telegraph to
It gets …..EVEN MORE INTERESTING!
and then
This was inevitable if Rahman was found guilty. He faces an uphill struggle and huge costs if he goes down this route.
Utterly inevitable. I sort of hope he goes ahead with this, in order that he may make a further fool of himself. The man knows no limits in his cries of “Islamophobia”. When will he wake up and see what a conniving, deceitful, arrogant, grasping fraudster he is?
…and the statement from Mayor Lutfur Rahman (hang on a minute – the election has just been voided – so there are no Councillors and there very definitely is no Mayor!)
http://lutfurrahman.com/tower-hamlets-first-statement-election-court/
I guess he’s going to have to give up his Twitter account as well
https://twitter.com/MayorLutfur
Once again, the corrupt and now former Mayor of Tower Hamlets welcomed the process and looked forward to clearing his name with his faith in British justice, a system that he embraced as a solicitor, but now can’t accept the verdict.
Thing is – will he be a solicitor for much longer?
Obviously he wasn’t acting as a solicitor when he was Mayor….
….however he certainly can’t duck charges on the basis of ignorance of the law and I’m very sure that the Law Society like other professional bodies will have provision for people found guilty of certain charges and/or generally bringing the profession into disrepute.
Or to put it another way – would the Law Society licence him to practice as a Solicitor if he has been found guilty ‘in fact’ of general corruption?
(i.e the facts cannot be disputed only the law in relation to the conduct and findings of the Electoral Court)
from The Guardian –
Just to be clear………..
No doubt Al Gruaniad’s Dave Hill will now be doing a long article on how he got it all wrong. Don’t hold your breath.
Teeheehee
He might be having an interesting discussion with his Editor……
and Ted is back.
You really couldn’t make it up!
I said it first! 😀
The more I think about it the more I think Rahman and THF must have known this result in advance or at least thought it very likely to happen – and that’s why there are no THF candidates running in this General Election.
Just think what might have happened at the hustings if they had been…..
Or is there another explanation? Anybody?
Are you asking whether Rahman and THF knew that what they were doing was illegal?
I’ll give them the credit of not being totally stupid and say that yes, I think they did know that what they were doing was illegal.
Did they think they’d been found out though?
I think what was being reported as Rahman’s demeanour in court during the latter part of his evidence suggests to me that he must have realised he’d been found out.
and now for the Labour Party perspective
I read that as possibly meaning John Biggs is not a natural vote winner even if he’s a good working politician. Or just Labour wanting to be seen to be doing it by the book? Properly!
They will want to see who the other candidate(s) are.
I was thinking that. I should imagine at least a couple of people will want to throw their hat in the ring.
Oh no not again…
Our new Acting Mayor – and a man who has stayed away from Twitter for some days
https://twitter.com/CllrOliurRahman
I have posted before about who should be the new Labour candidate and it clearly has to be Helal Abbas Uddin. The behaviour of Biggs in all this has been disgraceful. He was a terrible witness, did not initiate the action and has sat on the sidelines letting everyone else take the risk with money and reputations.
Let’s all remember as I have posted before, there is an IFE/Bangladeshi block of votes out there that could shift to another candidate who could win. Biggs might win, Abbas will.
As did Pickles and Central Gov who now are trying to take credit for the result. In the end it was left to 4 brave residents who risked everything.
If they don’t get their costs – and I think they will – I imagine there will might be a lot of people prepared to contribute to their fund. http://towerhamletselectionpetition.org/donate.php
Let’s see what happens on costs.
Even the police stood by and did nothing. To quote Judge Mawrey, it could be said they were like three wise monkeys. Except there were a lot more than 3 of them but with a lot less wisdom.
The Local Police Commander has some explaining to do……..
The whole “spiritual influence” thing in law is going to make any future election very interesting.
The Trial Verdict is going to be the lead item on BBC London Lunchtime News.
Somebody else trying to claim some of the credit for this verdict
Much better tone to take
But easier said than done unless all the Lutfurites move on as well.
Well I guess it depends on what you mean by Lutfurites. Is it likely that being associated with the man and/or called a “Lutfurite” taint a candidate in future?
I mean – who wants to be associated with a man who has been declared to be corrupt and a liar in the High Court?
I suspect there will be quite a few nutters who still believe, like the corrupt and former Mayor, that this was all a set up by the establishment that doesn’t like his ‘progressive’ form of politics; it’s racist, islamaphobic etc, etc, etc…
All the more important to relate precisely why the Court found as it did.
All the more important to impress on people that justice always catches up with wrongdoing.
Michael Crick of Channel 4
As Rahman does (or did) about everything that’s not to his liking, but who’s going to take any notice now?
WHO IS IN CHARGE?
Is it Stephen Halsey or Oli Rahman or Eric Pickles? Are the THF councillors valid because they ran as a party when THF has never existed as a legal party? I’m confused
Alibor & Lutfur are out immediately. Other THF Cllrs remain. Oli Rahman acting mayor. Election poss June 12.
Surprising really as Judge declared election of all THF Councillors to be corrupt. I would have thought Central Gov would have taken over until the election as there may be an element of undue haste in re-running the election.
Very good questions
I’d say the Commissioners might well be put in charge on a temporary basis until new Elections can be run.
Thing is if an Election has been voided then do ANY of the Councillors have ANY mandate to make a decision on anything.
I certainly wouldn’t want to be a company doing business with this Council right now.
I’m guessing Pickles will pronounce on what the situation is – I don’t think that’s something which comes within the remit of Mawrey’s decision-making.
Of one thing I think we can be certain, the process for appointing a new Chief Executive will now get underway – and it won’t be an internal appointment.
I hope so. I think it would be a mistake to rush into an election without giving time for the dust to settle although the remaining THF Councillors are rather lame ducks because they can’t get re-elected as THF does not exist. Hopefully no proper party will touch them so effectively their careers are over. It seems a bit of a dangerous position, like having a disgruntled employee work their notice period.
I think the forensic scrutiny of their lack of proper party apparatus (constitution, accounts etc etc) must have been the point at which they realised they were in big trouble. It was certainly the point at which I became hopeful that we might get the result we got today.
I think that this lack of a proper party must also be one of the main reasons why there were no candidates at this election.
Anybody standing would have had to stand as an Independent.
So do we now need to pay some closer attention to who the Independents are?
More from Ted
If costs go against Rahman where’s he going to get money for his Judicial Review?
If costs go against Rahman then where’s he going to get the money to pay them? Or will he just be declared bankrupt and Messrs. Hussain, Moffat and Irlam are left to whistle?
Good point. My recollection is that you can’t do a Judicial Review unless you demonstrate the means to pursue it.
I wonder how much of his assets are now in his wife’s name………..
He made some comment that if he lost he faced financial ruin. To get a lawyer to even begin a Judicial Review, the first thing Rahman will need to demonstrate is means. Being a solicitor found guilty of corruption he’d be lucky to find a lawyer willing to go near him.
Maybe he’d conduct his own JR. Or do they still insist on it being barristers only? I’m guessing whichever Barrister he tries to get would want to extract a premium fee – payable up front – which wouldn’t be possible if he had not discharged what he owes to the Court (I think – anybody?)
It seems to me that for anybody to back him and fund him to go to JR, it might just be cheaper to just start tearing up a wad of £50 notes right now.
Like they haven’t feathered their nests over the last 5 years. They will be rolling in illicit wonga for years to come, like pigs in shit.
🐽🐽🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐷🐽🐽
Absolutely bloody brilliant result. Well done Azmal Hussein, Angela Moffat and Andy Irlam. Well done Mawrey and Hoar. Well done Ted – I strongly suspect that your blog and tweets have been key to this case and this result.
Two observations (apart from the very relevant ones already):
– TH Labour should hang their heads in shame about this. They arguably created the monster that is Rahman, they dithered about whether he should be barred from the party, Livingstone gave Rahman support and TH Labour failed to back this case in any way, shape or form. BUT it’s a dead cert that they will make political capital out of it. They are only fractionally less disgraceful than Rahman et al.
– I note today the Islamic meaning of the name “Lutfur Rahman” – it’s “kindness of the most merciful”. Anyone want to get stuck into that one?
Tim.
If I was a Headhunter employed to help Tower Hamlets find a new Chief Executive then the first place I’d head would be Ealing Town Hall – to the office of the one man who stood up to Rahman – and had his contract terminated as a result.
…and the Main BBC Lunchtime News has just covered the verdict. No interviews.
Can somebody expand on the 7:2 result? What was the seven and what was the 2?
I can find 7:1 as follows:
Corrupt practices – Guilty
Campaign was deliberately dishonest – Guilty
Used power to promote his community and induce votes – Guilty
Bribery – Guilty
Undue spiritual influence – Guilty
Election of all THF Councillor corrupt – Guilty
Corrupt practices – Guilty
Intimidation at polling stations – NOT guilty
The Evening Standard has the result re costs – and it’s not good news for the ex-Mayor.
read more here http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/tower-hamlets-verdict-mayor-lutfur-rahman-guilty-corruption-banned-from-standing-in-new-election-10198118.html
He’s personally responsible for this bill – and let’s not forget that he brought it all on himself. If he had acted within the law and been more about being a real politician rather than some sort of corrupt popularity contest he’d still be a Councillor and wouldn’t have a very big bill to pay.
Corruption should play no part in British politics!
Sorry, in error I inserted “Note the word immediate” into the quote when it should have been outside it and immediately following
Lest we forget
Interesting times… can anyone point to where we can find the full decision? We have only heard the executive summary and assume that there is more detail in the full decision as and when it is published.
There’s 200 pages of it plus the Executive Summary. I’m assuming it will be made available online.
It will covering things like this (from the Evening Standard)
The petitioners – were successful in the end and made it to the winners’ photoshoot outside the Royal Courts of Justice
This is the Daily Mail on this matter
I wonder why the usually vocal Livingstone and Galloway are keeping quiet?
Galloway has said not one word on his Twitter account https://twitter.com/georgegalloway
Nor has Livingstone https://twitter.com/ken4london
The answer – they backed the wrong man.
They are now very closely associated with a man who has been judged in the High Court to be be guilty of corruption, bribery, dishonesty and the unfair use of spiritual influence.
I’m guessing Galloway my be buying a new kind of hat as a disguise!
👒👒👒👒 would go nice with his red catsuit, and protect him from projectile rotten eggs and tomatoes!