"controversyNOTW journalist grilled about phone-hacking" 2011

Spot-fixing controverses 2o11

The lawyer of Mohammad Asif grilled the prosecution's chief witness - former News of the World journalist Mazhar Mahmood - as to whether he knew of any phone-hacking during his undercover investigation in the alleged spot-fixing trial on Wednesday. And he also became the latest to try to discredit agent Mazhar Majeed. 

 

 It was the most fraught session so far in the six days of the trial, in which Salman Butt and Asif face charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord's test in August last year when they allegedly conspired with Majeed, teenage fast bowler Mohammad Amir and other people unknown to bowl pre-determined no-balls. Butt and Asif deny the charges.

 

Alexander Milne QC, the barrister of Pakistan fast bowler Asif, quizzed Mahmood on how he came to begin his covert sting investigation. Mahmood replied that he had received information from a source (whose identity he kept secret), who he had known for a long time. He added there was an agreement that there would be payment to the source on publication of his information.  

 

Given the developments in this year's closure of the News of the World, due to illegal phone-hacking methods used to acquire exclusive stories for the newspaper, Milne pressed Mahmood on whether he had any knowledge of hacking and whether the origin of his initial information come from hacked text messages.