The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) today struck off the practitioner it found earlier this week had published antisemitic and offensive posts on Twitter.
Some of the key tweets from Farrukh Najeeb Husain were directed at Simon Myerson KC, a Jewish barrister, and Hugo Rifkind, a Jewish journalist at The Times.
He was reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) by leading law firm Bevan Brittan, where he was working as a self-employed consultant to deliver on a particular client mandate in spring 2021.
The SDT hearing has been held over several days since September. Upholding the allegations, the tribunal found some, but not all, of the tweets that were offensive and/or inappropriate also to be antisemitic.
William Ellerton, chair of the panel, announced the decision on sanction this afternoon after more than three hours of deliberation, with the reasons to be published as usual in the coming weeks.
The tribunal denied the SRA’s application for costs, however, making no order for costs.
Mr Husain, who represented himself, absented himself from the hearing today and the tribunal decided to proceed in his absence, as the solicitor had requested.
Representing the SRA, Louise Culleton – a barrister at Capsticks – said Mr Husain had provided a letter from his GP that he would not attend because of a decline in his mental health and concerns that it would get worse if he did.
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