Former UKIP spokesperson admits to being 'boss' of kidnapping gang in Pakistan

Former United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Commonwealth spokesperson Mujeebur Rehman Bhutto, 35, admitted to being the former leader of a kidnapping gang in Pakistan, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on Tuesday. Bhutto took 56,000 pound sterling in ransom money in Manchester from a high-profile kidnapping by his gang in Karachi in June, 2004. The 35-year-old confessed to being the ‘boss’ of the gang in order to avoid the risk of being deported to Pakistan and being given the death penalty. He made his confession in 2005 at a UK court and was given a seven-year-sentence. “You came to the UK to avoid the risk of detection in Pakistan, where kidnapping is a capital offence,” said Judge Martin Steiger when sentencing the former ‘boss’. Appeal against conviction The former UKIP Commonwealth spokesperson told the news and current affairs programme BBC Newsnight, “The evidence which was bought against me was from Pakistan. The allegation was simply because of political rivalry.” He further added that he will appeal against the conviction on the basis of it being a conspiracy to blackmail him. Bhutto stated that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had thrown out the case against him but according to senior police sources the former ‘boss’ of the kidnapping gang is still wanted in Pakistan. Resignation On February 3, UKIP had said that Bhutto has resigned from the party. “Mr Bhutto joined UKIP from the Conservative Party less than a year ago. When we recently became aware of possible issues relating to his past and raised the matter with him he resigned his membership,” a UKIP spokesperson had stated. Bhutto was once an image of respectability having worked with UKIP leader Nigel Farage and even organising a trip to the mosque for the UKIP leader. He has appeared often as the party representative of UKIP in local as well as national media. The kidnapping Ahmed Naeem, son of a wealthy business man, was kidnapped at gunpoint in Karachi by the gang and just five days later Bhutto flew to England. Phone calls to Ahmed’s father, Mohammad Naeem recorded by police in Pakistan revealed that Bhutto had stated: “I have the power to give you such torture that you won’t forget it for the rest of your life.” Reports showed that the former spokesperson had also threatened to cut Ahmed’s head off and send it to his father. Ahmed’s family was assisted by the police in paying the ransom which was later recovered from Bhutto’s house in Leeds, UK. Other members of the gang were arrested and given death penalty in Pakistan but their sentences were changed to life in prison in 2007 while one member was also released.