UK: Lord Ahmed, his two brothers charged with rape, granted bail till April 16

London [UK], Mar 19 (ANI): Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham charged with two counts of attempting to rape a girl under 16 and one count of indecently assaulting a boy under 14, appeared in the Sheffield Magistrates' Court on Tuesday morning. He was there alongside two of his brothers, Mohamed Farouq, and Mohammed Tariq, who denied similar charges.
All three were granted bail to appear at Sheffield Crown Court on 16 April. The charges against the former Labour peer relate to two complainants - a boy and a girl - and are said to have taken place between 1971 and 1974, when he was aged between 14 and 17.
Lord Ahmed of East Bawtry Road, Rotherham, did not enter any pleas during the 10 minutes brief hearing but his solicitor, Haroon Shah, said he would be pleading not guilty to all the charges.
Farouq of Worrygoose Lane, Rotherham, pleaded not guilty to four counts of indecently assaulting a boy under 14 between 1968 and 1972.
Tariq of Gerard Road, Rotherham, denied two counts of indecently assaulting a boy under 14 between 1970 and 1972.
Ahmed stood in the dock with his brothers, wearing a dark suit and navy tie. He spoke to confirm his name, date of birth, address and his nationality as British.
In March, Lord Ahmed was charged with historical sexual offences against two children, two counts of attempted rape and one count of indecent assault in the early 1970s.
The charges against Ahmed relate to two complainants – a boy and a girl – and to alleged incidents between 1971 and 1974 when he was a teenager. The indecent assault charge relates to a boy under 14.
Nazir Ahmed was born in Azad Kashmir but his political roots are in Rotherham, where he grew up and still lives. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1969 with his family to join his father who was working in steel factories in Rotherham.
He joined the Labour Party in 1975 aged 18 and became a councillor in Rotherham in 1990.
Educated locally, he joined the Labour party at 18 and served for a decade on Rotherham metropolitan borough council. After studying at Sheffield Hallam University, he ran a chain of shops in his home town and became a property developer.
In 1998, he became one of the first Muslim peers to be appointed to the House of Lords by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. He resigned from the Labour Party in 2013.  (ANI)