Farid El Diwany

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Farid El Diwany, admitted 1990, was found to have breached professional rules by reason of two Norwegian harassment convictions (2001 and 2003) against Ms H, involving abusive letters, cards, a circulated 'report' and a website disclosing intimate personal details. The Tribunal refused to go behind the foreign convictions, finding no exceptional circumstances despite provocation. He also failed to report the convictions to his regulator and wrongly confirmed nothing relevant to disclose on practising certificate renewals. The Tribunal found a lack of integrity (not dishonesty). Culpability was high with significant harm; despite strong personal mitigation and provocation, his complete lack of insight and continuing website led to strike off, plus costs of £5,706.56. His subsequent appeal and permission application were dismissed.

Duties found breached:

• No unlawful discrimination or harassment
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Self-report to the regulator
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct amounted to a criminal offence
• Conduct continued after the first conviction and gave rise to a second conviction
• Events were calculated, deliberate and repeated over an extended period
• Victim (Ms H) was vulnerable, as the Respondent was aware
• Concealment: failed to declare convictions and wrongly confirmed nothing to disclose when renewing practising certificate
• Website with private information remained published 16 years after being ordered removed
• Respondent ought to have known conduct breached his obligations

Mitigating factors:

• Previously unblemished career with no prior disciplinary findings
• Very strong personal mitigation: substantial and unpleasant provocation from untrue Norwegian press articles focusing on his faith
• Received disgraceful Islamophobic hate mail