Best Tory demands that the police look into a party donor’s “sexual blackmail allegation” against a female ex-MP.
The police should look into Mohamed Amersi, a businessman and Tory supporter, for potential “criminal harassment” of former Bristol MP Charlotte Leslie, according to Conservative MP Sir David Davis. Sir David further charged Mr. Amersi with a “misogynistic hate campaign” on social media against Ms. Leslie, using parliamentary legal protection.
He further asserted that Mr. Amersi had made an attempt to “intimidate” Dame Margaret Hodge, a former Labour minister.Accusing Mr. Amersi of being a “shady fixer for corrupt politicians,” Sir David launched a broad assault, claiming that the multimillionaire had amassed his wealth by “facilitating corrupt deals for dictatorships and autocracies,” including Russia.
Additionally, he asserted that Mr. Amersi’s libel attorney, Carter Ruck, had engaged in “perjury” by “lying” on the amount of money he had spent on his unsuccessful lawsuit against Ms. Leslie.
Tuesday night, in response, Mr. Amersi denounced Sir David as a “biased bully, coward, and liar” and refuted all of the accusations. Additionally, he dared Sir David to repeat them outside of the Commons chamber of debate, where he would not be protected by the law.
Carter Ruck’s managing partner, Nigel Tait, denied Sir David’s assertion. The Independent was informed by Mr. Tait that the judge concluded Mr. Amersi had misremembered his costs. Perjury was not implied in any way.
Sir David’s remarks follow last year’s dismissal of Mr. Amersi’s libel case against former Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie by a High Court judge.Mr. Amersi claimed that Ms. Leslie had slandered him in a covert dossier. Mr. Amersi and his Russian partner, Nadejda Roditcheva, had donated £750,000 to the Conservatives and supported Boris Johnson’s leadership.
They split up in 2020 after she said he attempted to use his money to seize control of a Tory organization she founded with the intention of improving UK-Middle East ties. Additionally, he gave more than £1 million to the charities that King Charles supported, which allowed him to have dinner with the heir apparent at the time.
The philanthropist Mr. Amersi has always adamantly denied any wrongdoing, justifying his actions as “access capitalism.” Mr. Amersi was chastised by Sir David for the manner in which he had fought Ms. Leslie. “He set out to destroy her reputation—his campaign against her went far beyond the (legal) case itself,” Mr. Amersi stated.
“There were physical threats, the gathering of personal information about her family, and lies that she sexually blackmailed men.”And Amersi himself launched a relentless, sexist, and ultimately libelous hate campaign on social media.
Mr. Amersi “is deeply immersed in a twilight world of backroom bribes,” according to Sir David. He went on, “This is the reason he was so desperate to deny Ms. Leslie’s claims.” “He did not want to be revealed and have his well constructed public persona—that of a cunning businessman and giving philanthropist—dismantled.
“Amersi obviously thought he could use intimidation, bullying, and the prospect of financial disaster to break Ms. Leslie’s will and make her give in. He was unsuccessful.He subjected Charlotte Leslie to years of suffering in what would have been considered unlawful harassment.
Mr. Amersi, sixty-three, was paid £7 million annually by a Swedish telecom company, according to Sir David, and he had “aided and benefited regimes that resembled a shopping list of dictatorships and autocracies.” Russia and former Soviet nations like Uzbekistan were among them.
“Amersi made shady trades possible. The recurring nature of the dubious activities in question is remarkable, as Sir David remarked. Concerningly, Mr. Amersi has had some success in his attempts to “buy his way into the British establishment.” Rather than coming across as the dirty political fixer for crooked politicians he truly is, he has successfully repositioned himself as a humanitarian and benefactor.
He was willing to take any action necessary to gain power, and it was obvious that the British establishment was weak.”The upper echelons of society exhibit a blind faith, content to amass wealth without questioning it.”
Sir David’s dramatic intervention in the Commons came after a separate altercation between Dame Margaret Hodge and Mr. Amersi. She has written to the Electoral Commission and the Metropolitan Police, requesting that they look into whether the Conservative Party violated election laws by accepting a £200,000 donation from his partner, Ms. Roditcheva, according to a report from the BBC on Tuesday.
According to Dame Margaret, new information on the donation made just before the 2017 election surfaced in investigative journalist Tom Burgis’s latest book, “Cuckooland.”She claimed that although Mr. Amersi had offered to donate, Tory Headquarters had informed him that, as he was not listed on the electoral register, the funds should come from his partner’s account.
“The Conservative Party may have knowingly taken a donation from a non-permissible person,” Dame Margaret said on BBC Newsnight. At the time, Mr. Amersi was not listed on the voter registration. Additionally, you are not permitted to make donations if you are not included on the electoral register. It is likewise not acceptable if his money is moved to a third party. That is a very important issue.
According to the Conservatives, they only take donations from authorized sources. Mr. Amersi maintained that his partner’s account was where the money originated and that no rules had been broken. He said that Dame Margaret was his target of a “politically motivated vendetta. “The businessman called the Tory grandee a “liar, coward, and bully” in response to Sir David’s previous criticism of Mr. Amersi in parliament.
Mr. Justice Nicklin dismissed Mr. Amersi’s libel complaint against Ms. Leslie in the High Court ruling from the previous year, stating he had “failed to prove serious harm” had been caused to him by her. Campaigners for journalistic freedom praised it as a “historic victory.”
She submitted a dossier that raised concerns about Mr. Amersi’s previous business dealings and connected Russia to a number of influential Conservatives and intelligence officials. Her “dodgy dossier,” according to Mr. Amersi, featured misleading facts, harming his reputation.
“David Davis made another misinformed rant against me in favor of Leslie and to promote Burgis’s book,” Mr. Amersi remarked following Sir David’s attack in the Commons. For the record, I reiterate my earlier remarks: Davis has intimidated and lied about the truth by invoking parliamentary privilege. Please present any concrete evidence he may have regarding his allegations to me outside. Don’t be a coward.