British journalist Mazher Mahmood, whose sting operation led to conviction of three Pakistani players including the then captain Salman Butt and pacers Muhammad Amir and Muhammad Asif, was jailed for 15 months on Friday for tampering with evidence in a high-profile trial.
Mahmood, 53, carried out the undercover inquiry which led to the 2011 conviction of former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir for taking bribes to fix incidents in a match against England.
Following the ‘sting’ operation, the three players were banned for a minimum of five years each by the International Cricket Council.
The journalist, whose elaborate disguises have duped criminals, celebrities, and even royalty, plotted to get his driver to change a police statement during the drugs prosecution of Tulisa Contostavlos, a singer and former judge of the British version of the “X Factor” TV talent show.
Contostavlos had been about to go on trial accused of supplying cocaine for Mahmood, the self-styled “King of the Sting”, as he exposed as an influential Indian film producer while working on an exclusive story for the Sun on Sunday paper.
The conviction is set to ruin the career of Mahmood, one of Britain’s best-known undercover journalists. News UK, Murdoch’s UK newspaper arm, said it had sacked him.
