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Abu Hamza

No, I shall set out the facts first and then I will take an intervention. It will be worthwhile if I recap the facts to prevent further confusion. Abu Hamza already owned a property in Adie road when his assets were frozen. In June 2003, it was transferred for nil value to his son. The police considered whether the transfer constituted a criminal offence under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001 or the Al-Qaida and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2002. On reviewing the evidence, they concluded that no offence was committed, as the property was transferred for no economic benefit rather than sold and no funds were made available to Abu Hamza. The police reached the same conclusion on the evidence that Abu Hamza’s son sold the property in Hammersmith and purchased a property at Hicks avenue. They decided that no criminal offence had been committed and no funds were made available to terrorists. The hon. Gentleman claims that the new orders that we introduced last autumn would have meant that those transfers constituted a criminal offence. When I had a meeting with him in December, I set out the position clearly that under the old and new orders, and under UN, EU and UK law, a transfer of property with nil value and therefore no transfer of funds to the designated individual was not, in the judgment of the police and the security services, an illegal act. I set that out in detail to the hon. Gentleman. Six weeks later, the same allegations are still being bandied around. Today he called for urgency and asked more detailed questions about benefit transfers that go beyond my ministerial remit. After our meeting, he put on his website a report of the meeting and a report about the dealings of a particular designated individual and his family. He complains on his website that I said that I would like to have in writing the details of his concerns so that I can investigate them. The meeting was on 18 December; today is 31 January. I have no evidence of having received a detailed letter from the hon. Gentleman. Indeed, I rang his office this afternoon to ask whether it had been sent, because there was no receipt by my office of such a letter, and I was told that they did not know the answer, that they would have to get back to me, and that they had no evidence of a letter being sent. I have no evidence of a letter being received.