Aamer Anwar

Aamer Anwar (born 30 December 1967) is a Scottish-based lawyer of Pakistani background, former Rector of the University of Glasgow (2017–2020).

Aamer Anwar
Aamer Anwar in September 2018
Personal details
Born (1967-12-30) 30 December 1967
NationalityScottish
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
University of Strathclyde
University of Liverpool
OccupationLawyer

Early life, education and student activism

Anwar was born in England and moved to Scotland in 1986 to study mechanical engineering at the University of Glasgow for a future in the Royal Air Force.[1] He became a student activist and led a campaign against alleged racism at the city's Dental Hospital. This eventually saw the introduction of anonymous marking across all faculties at the University.[2]

He left engineering to study sociology and politics, and was still a student when, in 1991, he was arrested by police officers for illegally flyposting on Ashton Lane. During his arrest he was pushed to the ground, and had his teeth chipped. Anwar successfully took civil action against Strathclyde Police. In 1995, Sheriff Evans found that one officer had assaulted Anwar and that it appeared to be a racially motivated attack; Anwar was awarded £4,200 in compensation and the policeman was suspended. Anwar however found himself criticised by the ruling Sheriff in regards to the release of "bloated confrontational material" surrounding the case with the Sheriff stating the allegations of racism did not influence his finding [3]

Anwar became a solicitor in 2000 initially as part of a Glasgow-based partnership, before founding Aamer Anwar & Co, Solicitors & Notaries in 2006.[4]

Surjit Singh Chhokar

Anwar came to prominence campaigning on behalf of the family of Surjit Singh Chhokar, a waiter who was murdered in November 1998 in Overtown, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The case had some parallels to the Murder of Stephen Lawrence in England which led to a radical overhaul of the criminal justice system and several inquiries. The Inquiries were boycotted by the Chhokar family as they were not public and were considered by the family to be a 'whitewash'. Subsequently the Jandoo Inquiry which the family boycotted and refused to give evidence to, heavily criticised Anwar and said he took on too many roles and also took liberties in interpreting for the family.[5] In the latter case, Anwar led the campaign on behalf of the Chhokar family. He also served on the Scottish Executive's Stephen Lawrence Steering Group, set up in 2000.[6][7]

In 2012, following the reform of the double jeopardy law, he approached the Lord Advocate on behalf of the Chhokar family to request that the case be reopened and reinvestigated. On 2 May 2014 Anwar and the Chhokar family met with the Lord Advocate who confirmed that following reinvestigation by Police Scotland the Crown was seeking to have the original acquittals of three men set aside in an application to the Appeal Court for a retrial over the murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar.[8]


In October 2016, after a five-week trial, Ronnie Coulter was found guilty of the murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar.[9] Following the conviction, Police Scotland and the Lord Advocate acknowledged the role of the campaigning by the Chhokar family and Aamer Anwar.[10]

Following sentencing of Ronnie Coulter to a life sentence, a Crown Office spokesman said :-

"The sentencing today for the murder of Ronnie Coulter has finally delivered justice for the Chhokar family. The family have shown great courage and dignity throughout their long wait to see if someone is jailed for his killing. The family along with Aamer Anwar, campaigned tirelessly for improvements in the way allegations of racial crimes were dealt with and the justice system has transformed how it deals with racial crimes as a result".[11]

Detective Chief Superintendant Clark Cuzen following the verdict said "If Darshan Singh Chhokar was alive today i can only imagine his feelings at seeing justice done. It is important to recognise the tireless campaigning for justice over the years by the Chhokar family and their lawyer Aamer Anwar. I hope they can take some comfort from today's verdict".[12]

'TC' Campbell

In 2004 Anwar was the solicitor for 'TC' Campbell and successfully appealed to have Campbell's murder conviction overturned; Campbell had spent 20 years in jail for the Arson and Murder of a family, an incident that had been part of the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars.[13]

Tommy Sheridan

In 2010 he acted as solicitor for Tommy Sheridan in HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan. Sheridan sacked Anwar following a bitter dispute between the two men over the lawyer's refusal to stop writing a column for a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch.[14]

In July 2011 Anwar presented a dossier along with Tom Watson MP to Strathclyde Police into alleged criminality at the News of the World, allegations of phone hacking and data breaches and corruption in the police, as part of the wider News International phone hacking scandal. This led to a full-scale police inquiry by Strathclyde Police termed Operation Rubicon and the subsequent arrest of Andy Coulson and Bob Bird, Scottish Editor of News of the World.[15]

Other

On 2 October 2012 he gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee arguing against allowing cameras into criminal trials.[16]

On 5 June 2014 it was announced that Anwar had lodged an appeal on behalf of the family of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the worst single act of mass murder on British soil in 2001 for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie. The Libyan Al-Megrahi died from cancer following his compassionate release from Prison while an application was being lodged with the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission seeking to review his case and return it to the appeal court as a 'miscarriage of justice'. Aamer Anwar was also instructed by 24 British relatives of passengers who died on the flight including Dr. Jim Swire.[17]

In September 2014, Anwar began representing the family of Jihadi bride Aqsa Mahmood, a 20-year-old woman from Glasgow who travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[18]

In 2017 he was instructed by the family of Sheku Bayoh, a 31-year-old man who died in 2015 after being restrained by police officers. The family met the Lord Advocate, believing that Pirc's investigation had been fundamentally flawed.[19]

In February 2017 he represented the family of murder victim Emma Caldwell, when they met the Lord Advocate who had directed a second murder inquiry that was underway.[20]

He also represented two now former Scottish National Party MPs. He briefly represented Michelle Thomson[21] and later Natalie McGarry.[22]

Campaigning

He was an active participant in the Stop the War Coalition, and campaigned against the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles.[23][24]

He has been a longstanding critic of the Dungavel Detention Centre for failed asylum seekers.[25]

He is a trustee of the Time for Inclusive Education charity for LGBT inclusive education in Scottish schools.[26]

Rector of the University of Glasgow

In 2008 Anwar was runner-up in the election for Rector of the University of Glasgow, losing the race for the position to Charles Kennedy.[27] Edward Snowden[28] followed Kennedy for a three-year term of office which finished in 2017, when Anwar was again nominated for this role.[29] On 21 March he was announced as having been elected by the students with over 54% of the vote (4,458), beating the eleven other candidates including High Court Judge Lady Hazel Cosgrove who came second with 1,409 votes, whilst political speaker and writer Milo Yiannopoulos came fourth with 533 votes. All the candidates were eliminated in the first round due to the 'landslide' result in Anwar's favour.[30] He took office on 31 March 2017[31] and was installed at a ceremony on 19 April 2017.[32]

The Times Scottish edition reported in June 2018 that Anwar had failed to hold a single surgery for the first 11 months of his rectorship; a claim backed up by Glasgow University.[33]

Anwar been criticised for publicly accusing the university of showing "callous disregard" for students and staff, treating international students as "cash cows" and claiming to have uncovered serious cases of racism and sexual harassment. However, officials at the university insisted that when they asked for specific details so they could launch investigations, none were provided.[34]

Awards and honours

Anwar was named Solicitor of the Year in the Herald's Law Awards of Scotland 2018. Anwar was named "Lawyer of the Year" at the fourteenth Scottish Legal Awards in March 2017.[35][36] He had been named "Solicitor of the Year" in the Herald's Law Awards of Scotland in November 2016.[37]

His firm picked up "Criminal Law Firm of the Year" at the Law Awards of Scotland in 2006 and again in 2014.[38][39][40]

At the Lloyds TSB Jewel Awards in 2007, he received the Professional Excellence Award as a 'recognition of his outstanding achievements and the huge impact his work has had UK wide'.[41] In December 2007 the law magazine The Firm placed him ninth in a feature of top 100 most powerful and influential people in the Scottish justice system and legal profession.[42]

In January 2013, he was nominated for the Services to Law award at the British Muslim Awards.[43]

In 2014 he was awarded the Scottish Muslim Award—Al Adl Ihsan for Public Services (Adl and Ihsan are Arabic terms for evoking the importance of justice and charity in Islam). He was given the award by Baroness Syeda Warsi on 11 May 2014.[44]

Controversies

Anwar made controversial statements in the aftermath of the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack, in which he claimed, "That there is no difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber, the effects are still the same". In further remarks he argued that there was a moral equivalence between the 9/11 hijackers and the United States when they bomb innocent civilians.[45]

On 9 January 2008 Sheriff Charlotte Coutts described Anwar's evidence as 'not credible' during a trial in which he claimed to be the victim of racial abuse.[46]

In 2008 he faced allegations of contempt of court in the light of a complaint by the presiding judge in the case, Lord Carloway, after Anwar directly attacked the jury following the trial and conviction of Mohammed Siddique in the High Court of Justiciary.

In a lengthy statement, the judge accused Mr Anwar of making unprofessional, defamatory and factually inaccurate attacks on the judiciary, the jury and the wider legal process. The solicitor, he added, was "hiding behind the cloak of his client" to make politically motivated attacks on anti-terrorism legislation - criticisms the judge claimed were out of bounds for a lawyer.

[47] It was the first hearing of its kind in the UK.[48] He was the first lawyer in the UK to be put on trial for contempt of court for comments he made on behalf of his client at the end of a trial. Iain Banks, the author, joined Labour politician Tony Benn, Respect MP George Galloway, Bashir Maan, convener of the Muslim Council of Scotland and human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce, among others to argue that such a prosecution was detrimental to free speech.[49]

While finding Anwar's comments to be "misleading" Lord Osborne did not find him in contempt of court. However he still strongly criticised Anwar's behaviour stating that statements from the lawyer were politically motivated and largely consisted of "angry and petulant criticism"; further stating that the court is entitled to expect better of those who practice before it.

Following the judgment, Anwar said he welcomed the finding of no contempt and stated

"As a defence lawyer I never set out to win a popularity contest, but I was taught it is a lawyer's duty to fearlessly represent his clients no matter what crime he is accused of or how demonised he is by society. As our Government criminalises communities and creates 'thought crime', lawyers still have a responsibility to be the guardians of our liberties and to campaign against injustice. Everyone likes to talk of the independence of the judiciary and prosecution but an independent defence able to speak without fear of recrimination by the state is an essential for freedom and justice."[50]

Following a full investigation by the Law Scotland he was cleared of any charges of misconduct.

Anwar persisted in fighting the miscarriage of justice appeal on behalf of his client Mohammed Siddique and in January 2010 was successful in having one of his convictions overturned at the Court of Appeal, as result Siddique was freed from prison however remains a convicted terrorist.[51]

References
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