28 February 2024 , 19:33
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A major Conservative donor has been accused of perjury, criminal harassment and bribery in an extraordinary intervention by a senior Tory MP.
Former Cabinet Minister David Davis used the protections of Parliamentary privilege, which protects MPs from being sued for defamation in most cases, to make the allegations against the multi-millionaire Mohamed Amersi in the Commons. He accused the telecoms tycoon, who has donated £750,000 to the Tories, of waging an “obsessive, misogynistic and ultimately defamatory hate campaign” against former Tory MP Charlotte Leslie.
It came, Mr Davis said, after Mr Amersi attempted a takeover of the Conservative Middle East Council, which Ms Leslie runs. Mr Amersi later set up his own rival organisation and accused Ms Leslie of libel, taking her through a “long, drawn out an expansive claim of breach of data protection rules.”
Mr Davis added: “He set out to destroy her reputation. There were lies that she sexually blackmailed men, a collection of intimate details about her family and threatening letters were set by the notorious legal firm Carter Ruck to journalists and MPs including myself.”
Mr Amersi lost a defamation case against Ms Leslie last June. He was criticised by the judge and agreed to pay all costs. Mr Davis accused Mr Amersi of perjury for “lying” during the trial about an interview in which he told a journalist what his legal costs had been.
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Mr Amersi denied making the comments in court and accused the reporter, Tom Burgis of “misrepresenting the truth”. But transcripts of the interview reveal he did make the comments.
“I'm not a lawyer,” Mr Davis said. “But that would appear to me to be perjury. A picture emerges here of an attempt to avoid justice by obscuring the truth.” Mr Davis alleged Mr Amersi had built his fortune through “corrupt deals” and “bribery”, in post-Soviet Russia, Uzbekistan and Nepal, and of building up an image for himself as an “upright citizen and philanthropist.”
“The Bribery Act is clear,” he told MPs in the Commons. “It's an offence for a British citizen to bribe a foreign public official no matter where in the world that action takes place. Mr Amersi is a British citizen. He must obey British law. His dealings in the former Soviet Union and Nepal are surely therefore a matter for the National Crime Agency to consider.
“Furthermore, the Metropolitan Police must now consider whether the actions against Charles Leslie constitute criminal harassment, and the judiciary should consider the question of perjury.”
Mohamed Amersi told the Mirror: "I have nothing more to add save that it is what he has already said: my response is that Davis is biased, a bully, a coward and a liar! If he believes what he says under the cloak of parliamentary privilege then he should say them to me outside parliament.
"And then I will get him to see if he can prove his point. Interesting to see how Leslie and Burgis have captured the minds of senior politicians in parliament to do their unsubstantiated allegations which for the record I deny in their entirety.
"And for the record every deal I did had the best lawyers and accountants. A crucial fact that is omitted in this debate."