Death-threat ‘lies’ add to Labour woes

LABOUR’S legal woes have worsened with disgraced MP Phil Woolas and his party facing a claim of defamation in relation to the historic election court.

Mohammed Dawoodji, from Bradford, is to take legal action, claiming Mr Woolas wrongly accused him of making death threats.

The election court found Mr Woolas deliberately lied about his Liberal Democrat rival, stripped him of his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat and barred him from standing for election for three years.

Menacing
The trial heard the Labour MP, who is appealing, stirred up racial tensions in a desperate bid to win votes.

Mr Woolas’s election leaflets claimed that extremist Muslims had made death threats against him.

He disclosed in court a leaflet known as Radar published by “The Fun Loving Radical” — named as Mr Dawoodji.

The leaflet’s message was that Mr Woolas was making it more difficult and expensive for Muslims to get English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) qualifications. It questioned how Muslims in Oldham could in good conscience vote for any Labour candidate in the election.

It ended with: “Anyone considering making death threats with regard to this publication should also include their name and address as Radar is offering a free hamper of goodies for the most imaginative and menacing communication.”

But Mr Dawoodji says this meant death threats against himself and not Mr Woolas. He says he has published leaflets in other areas about other issues and received death threats from right-wing extremists — which he uses humour to defuse.

He said: “If you laugh at them that defeats them. The easiest way to defeat terrorism is not through bombs, guns or violence — but humour.”

Mr Dawoodji, who says he is a trained lawyer, says he published the leaflet as people had complained to him about Mr Woolas.

Around 1,000 leaflets were to be distributed in Oldham but a volunteer had only handed out 30 when he says he was threatened and had to stop. He added: “The substance of the allegation Mr Woolas made against me was that I was some sort of assassin. I don’t stand by while people take a swing at me and Phil Woolas took a swing at me.

“He has had a comeuppance but this is not the end of the story. He now has a civil claim against him for defamation and against the Labour Party.”

During the case, Judge Mr Justice Teare read the leaflet and concluded the author “has not threatened you” to which Mr Woolas replied: “He has not.”

Labour had reported that: “One extremist website has even created a competition for the most imaginative ways to kill Phil Woolas.”

Mr Woolas accepted this referred to the Radar leaflet and not a website and that it was never reported to police formally as a crime. He also conceded that the Muslim Public Affairs Committee had made no threat of violence against him.

The judges said of the leaflet: “It cannot fairly be regarded as a death threat by extremist Muslims.”

Mr Dawoodji has actually supported Mr Woolas’s bid for an appeal, writing to the Speaker of the House of Commons to say he has the right to appeal.