Press Release

Issued on behalf of Nicholas van Hoogstraten

July 21, 2004

The Court of Appeal has today upheld the Appeal of Nicholas van Hoogstraten against the various illegal and vindictive Orders made by injustice Peter Smith in the dishonest and unsustainable High Court Action brought by the family of the murdered former slum landlord, fraudster and drug dealer Mohammamed Raja.

These Orders, now overturned, had the intention and effect of freezing and depriving Mr. van Hoogstraten and his family of U.K. assets with a net value of over £120 million. The prime motive for these draconian Orders was to block the funding needed by Mr. van Hoogstraten to pursue his Appeal against his equally illegal and vindictive conviction for the so-called “manslaughter” of Mohammed Raja.

Interestingly, the trail of dishonesty, incompetence, corruption and vindictiveness seen in the criminal pursuit of Mr. van Hoogstraten was mirrored in the civil pursuit of Mr. van Hoogstraten’s business empire.

This long drawn out saga commenced some 16 years ago when an associate of Mr. van Hoogstraten made a property loan on mortgage to Raja which was followed by several further loans to a value of over £1 million. With the property slump of 1989 – 1994 Raja was increasingly unable to meet his obligations so that monies were left owing (and are still owing) to Mr. van Hoogstraten and other parties. In 1993 Raja commenced a civil Action against Mr. van Hoogstraten fraudulently claiming properties that he had sold or mortgaged were, in fact, still his properties despite factual evidence to the contrary.

In July 1999 Raja was murdered by two or three men he let into his home. An argument broke out and after pulling a knife on the men, he was stabbed and then shot in the head.

The legal Action brought by Raja was going nowhere but formed the basis of a very weak motive to implicate Mr. van Hoogstraten in his murder. The police investigation found over 40 suspects for his murder and several recent threats to his life from a number of different parties with whom he had had dealings. In September of 2000 Mr. van Hoogstraten was charged with the “contract killing” murder of Raja, based on the most flimsy and fanciful circumstantial so-called evidence, concocted by a trio of dishonest, incompetent and corrupt police officers.

More dishonesty, incompetence and corruption was to follow in the guise of injustice Newman, the “appointed” trial judge, who made it all too clear in a preliminary Hearing that he “knew all about Mr. van Hoogstraten”. This idiot so-called judge, who had no recent experience of criminal law, set about trying to make a name for himself. However, he more than met his match in Mr. van Hoogstraten, who realised, early on, that Newman was on a mission.

At the close of the defence case, after it became obvious to all but an idiot that the urbane Mr. van Hoogstraten would not, and could not, have employed two decrepit heroin addicts in an old £300 van to contract execute Raja, injustice Newman invented the alternative charge/scenario of a manslaughter despite the fact that no such offence existed in law in the circumstances of the case (i.e. a manslaughter by proxy) and it was at no time alleged by the Prosecution. Upon conviction (by a majority decision), injustice Newman continued to play to the gallery by suggesting he was considering a life sentence for Mr. van Hoogstraten despite the fact that the legal circumstances necessary for the imposition of such a sentence did not exist.

Within a month of the fatally flawed manslaughter conviction, the Raja family, taking advantage of the media-hyped atmosphere, and by the use of perjured evidence, obtained an ex-parte world wide freezing Order against assets owned by Mr. van Hoogstraten. Even though the limit of their spurious and fraudulent claim was only £5 million, they sought to freeze known and claimed family assets with a net value of over £400 million.

Mr. van Hoogstraten, who was then conducting his own defence, was at every stage denied an opportunity to oppose or defend the freezing Order by the lunatic injustice Peter Smith who was very appropriately described by the senior prison officer present at one of his so-called “Hearings” in the following terms: “If it looks like a pig, sounds like a pig and behaves like a pig – then it is a pig”. That Peter Smith, who did not even possess a fundamental grasp of Company or Trust Law, could be appointed to the High Court bench beggars belief!

It is clear from transcripts of the proceedings that this inadequate and vindictive so-called judge then drove the litigation and, in an attempt to maximise the damage and loss to the Hoogstraten family business empire, even suggested the application by the Raja family for a Sequestration Order. It appears strange (and highly unlikely to be a coincidence) that in these two high profile and important cases, one in the Criminal Court and one in the Civil Court, Mr. van Hoogstraten had the “misfortune” to be tried by incompetent, dishonest, inexperienced and pig-headed judges who used their personal prejudices and inadequacies to cause serious harm to him and his family.

Despite the dishonesty and interference of injustice Peter Smith and those acting for the Raja family, the Appeal finally took place over four days in May of this year before a properly constituted Court of highly intelligent, experienced and incorruptible Judges whose decisions were delivered this morning.

The decisions of the Court of Appeal today open the door for Mr. van Hoogstraten to recover his very substantial costs, damages and compensation from the Raja family, the Sequestrators and others in a series of legal Actions to be commenced.

The corrupt and incompetent police officers responsible for his false and malicious prosecution in the Criminal case are currently the subject of an internal enquiry by the Metropolitan Police Special Investigation Office. A similar procedure needs to be initiated for the investigation of dishonest and incompetent judges who should also face sanction for their behaviour.

Dated this 21st day of July 2004