Talk:Roger Cook (journalist)

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I've removed the following as unsourced POV: --Eamonnca1 23:13, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

When Carlton Television screened the last series of The Cook Report, in one episode, shown on ITV on 13 May 1997, Roger Cook interviewed Asil Nadir, former Chairman of Polly Peck International. The interview formed part of Roger’s investigation into the Serious Fraud Office. The SFO had produced a witness at Nadir’s pre-trial hearings at the Old Bailey, who claimed that Nadir had offered the judge, Mr Justice Tucker, £3.5 million for the return of his passport. It forced the judge to halt proceedings. A Metropolitan Police investigation later found that the bribery allegation possessed no foundation in truth.

The production of the so-called witness and his purported evidence, a photocopied document, clearly altered with correction fluid, appeared very suspicious. The SFO produced him just as the judge had begun to discard their charges against Nadir. Of the original 66 indictments, the judge had thrown out 46 of them. It seemed plain that about to lose their case, the SFO had panicked by introducing such a dubious claim. Fearful that he was the victim of a conspiracy, the affair compelled Nadir to escape British jurisdiction and return to his home in Northern Cyprus where he maintains his innocence.

In his book, Dangerous Ground, Roger Cook reveals that he felt that the strategy of the SFO gave due credence to Nadir’s contention that he is innocent. Adding to his suspicions, Cook had also interviewed Nadir’s banking aide, Elizabeth Forsyth, after her release from jail. Mr Justice Tucker had sentenced her to serve 5-years in prison, yet upon appeal the Law Courts quashed her conviction and ruled that the judge had misdirected the jury to find her guilty.