Akunjee: Apologised to Mishcon de Reya
A solicitor who appeared on an antisemitic television programme on the Iranian state-owned TV channel has been fined for comments he made about London law firm Mishcon de Reya.
Mohammed Tasnime Akunjee wrongly accused the firm of having been guilty of money laundering and of acting for General Pinochet.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) said it found the “tone of the programme” on Press TV in September 2022 to be “objectively” antisemitic by using “well-known stereotypes and tropes”.
Mr Akunjee, who qualified in 2010, was not accused of saying anything antisemitic, however. The 46-year-old currently works as a consultant criminal defence solicitor at Waterfords Group in west London.
Press TV lost its licence to broadcast in the UK in 2012 because it was directly controlled by the Iranian government but continues to be available online. It is frequently accused of broadcasting antisemitic and Holocaust-denying content.
Presented by former Labour MP Chris Williamson and also featuring former Bristol University professor David Miller – both of whom have been accused of antisemitism in the past – the particular show, ‘Palestine Declassified’, was entitled ‘Mishcon de Reya – Zionist Law Firm’.
The SDT described it as “an attack” on Mishcon de Reya and people working there “as a Jewish law firm, employing Jewish individuals who are alleged to be promoting a pro-Israel agenda and as a political lobbying firm”.
The show highlighted links between the firm and Sir Keir Starmer, who it described as “an obedient man servant of Israel”, which the SDT said implied “in rather obvious terms that he is controlled or influenced by Israel”.
The SDT accepted Mr Akunjee’s account that he was invited on to the show to talk about SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) – including one case with which Mishcon was connected – and that he had prepared only for this topic.
He said he only found out when at the studio that the focus was on the firm. He went on to tell viewers that Mishcon had received “criminal fines for money laundering” when in fact it had been fined £232,500 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) as part of a regulatory settlement agreement for breaches of anti-money laundering procedures.
His claim that Mishcon had acted for one-time Chilean dictator General Pinochet was simply wrong.
The firm’s managing partner, James Libson, complained to the SRA in the wake of transmission. Mr Akunjee then wrote to him to apologise for his mistakes.
According to the SDT, he said “he understood the gravity of his mistakes but wished to assure Mr Libson that they were not driven by any malice towards the firm nor any individuals within it and that the public nature of his ‘blunder’ brings him no shortage of deep embarrassment”.
He had asked Press TV to withdraw the episode completely, or at least edit out his contribution, and published an apology on his Twitter profile.
Mr Akunjee said he had not appeared on the programme before or since – “having subsequently reviewed several of its programmes, [he] acknowledged that its style of presentation was not something that he, as a solicitor, would wish to be associated with any further”.
Mr Akunjee said he had felt “uneasy” about the shift in focus to Mishcon de Reya but the SRA argued that he did not take any action until it contacted him.
But the SDT accepted the solicitor’s evidence that “from his perspective at the time the content and tone of the programme was not antisemitic”, and that he did not know the programme “would later be edited to exclusively focus on that segment and to adopt that segment’s title as the programme’s title”.
At the same time, it noted that Mr Akunjee had volunteered the information about the anti-money laundering breaches.
“The tribunal observed that upon becoming aware of the refocusing of the show, he could have taken appropriate steps. The tribunal did not expect that he should have physically left, but considered that he could have stated that he had not prepared this topic for discussion, in order to avoid or limit any reliance being placed on any inaccurate statements.
“Instead, he proceeded by relying on his general knowledge while he was being portrayed as an expert and a solicitor.”
It was not a live programme “and the tribunal accepted his evidence that he assumed that there would be an editorial process that would pull out any inaccuracy”.
His failure to qualify his answers did not show a lack of integrity or moral soundness, and was not reckless. “The respondent clearly made a mistake on that day under pressure.” But the inaccurate statements undermined trust and confidence in the profession and caused harm to Mishcon de Reya.
In deciding to fine Mr Akunjee £6,500, the SDT noted that he had been recently rebuked for comparable misconduct in making statements on Twitter – an SRA notice said that between November 2021 and April 2022, he posted three tweets that were “abusive and intended to shock”, one of which was responding to “particularly unpleasant provocation”.
He was also ordered to pay costs of £30,000.
Back in August 2021, Mr Akunjee – who at the time was acting for the family of Shamima Begum – was at the centre of a social media storm over a tweet about the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan.
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