Neil Wilby Media

Following a case progression hearing at Bolton Magistrates’ Court on 9th August, 2023, a defendant facing a harassment charge has made a series of allegations against the police, the prosecutor and, to a much more minor extent, the judge.

Raja Miah, 50, unemployed, of Stamford Street, Mossley, was arrested in a dawn raid on his home on 21st July, 2021 and, subsequently, pleaded not guilty at Tameside Magistrates’ Court in February, 2022. There have been ten other hearings in these proceedings, including the one in Bolton last week. The defendant has provided a ‘running commentary’ on social media, throughout, maintaining his innocence.

After the Bolton hearing, on the same evening, Miah posted on the Recusant Nine Facebook channel that he controls in these terms:

“We have a trial date for next May 2nd & 3rd at Manchester. This will take me to just under 3 years from my initial arrest! For obvious reasons, I will not be commenting on the matter any further.”

Indeed, there has been no further output on Facebook, but Miah has since commented on the case on his subscriber-only Telegram channel, where he indicated that, in his view, disclosure failings may lead to another pre-trial hearing..

More crucially, on 12th August, 2023, just three days later, Miah broadcast these claims on his Twitter social media channel, again running counter to his bald assertion on Facebook and expanding substantially on his Telegram post:

“1. A date for my trial was set this week for next May. This will take the malicious prosecution against me to 3 yrs. CPS claimed they submitted the evidence file against me. They lied. The exhibits against me are missing as is the charge sheet. Seems we’re going back to court.

“2. At the hearing, prosecution claimed that ALL social media charging decisions are made by a ‘specialist prosecutor’. This follows me obtaining information from the CPS where I was informed that the decision to charge me had been referred to a specialist prosecutor. I’m dubious.

“3. And in typical circumstances, the CCTV footage I had requested for my defence from the police station had apparently been deleted. The footage would have confirmed Greater Manchester Police attempt to harass and intimidate me from political campaigning.

“4. The judge also refused to order the police from releasing the terms of reference of Operation Hexagon. Even though this was the police operation that my arrest was made under (read more here)”.

Raja Miah remains on conditional court bail.

The admin team at Greater Manchester Magistrates’ Courts has been asked to confirm the date of the next hearing in these proceedings.

A generic enquiry has also been made to the CPS press office regarding the status of prosecutors involved in social media charging decisions.

Page last updated: Monday 14th August, 2023 at 10h35

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Picture credit: CPS

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