FBI’s ex-informant claims drugs charges against Motiwala fake

LONDON: A former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant has revealed that he has irrefutable evidence proving innocence of Karachi businessman Jabir Motiwala, but claims the FBI has created problems for him to stop becoming a witness in the UK court to support the Pakistani national who has been languishing in a London jail for nearly three years now.

According to a court document this correspondent has seen, the former FBI informant says he was asked by his employers at the FBI to set up Jabir Motiwala on fake charges, and that Jabir did not do or say what the FBI are alleging he has done.

According to the US government and, as previously reported in this newspaper exclusively, three Pakistani American FBI informants described as CS1, CS2 & CS3 in court papers travelled to Karachi in 2010 to hold meetings with Jabir Motiwala to set up deals for the smuggling of drugs into the USA.

The US government says these meetings were secretly recorded and Motiwala suspected he was being trapped, and reported the same to the Pakistani authorities. Jabir Motiwala was arrested in August 2018 in London and has been in prison since then. Motiwala has been granted right to appeal by the London High Court, and the evidence of what is now claimed by the ex-FBI informant could prove to be crucial in this case.

According to credible sources the former informant was allegedly stopped from entering the UK in March last year by the UK immigration authorities at FBI’s behest to prevent their own former informant to meet lawyers of Motiwala.

The ex-informant was returned to the US, where he was immediately arrested, charged with offences and imprisoned where he still remains. In a court paper, Motiwala’s lawyers have argued that the informant was not given the opportunity to speak on behalf of his conscience.

Faridi’s American wife had Stage-4 cancer who also travelled with him to the UK in March 2020 and he wanted to come clean about his involvement in setting Jabir Motiwala up. He has shared that the FBI has acted illegally in this case.

In July 2019 at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the prosecution had said that Motiwala was secretly recorded over many years by three FBI agents and travelled from Karachi to the US to meet them to set up a drugs deal. The prosecution also claimed that Motiwala was a “high ranking” member of the Dawood Ibrahim’s alleged D-company but showed no evidence.

The prosecution says Jabir Motiwala did not carry drugs into the US but was a “facilitator” in transporting four kilograms of drugs seized in Canada. Jabir Motiwala has denied all charges. The London High Court will hear the matter at the end of this month.