The cousin of a Coventry councillor has gone on trial accused of rigging his election, according to reports in icCoventry. Iftikhar Hussain, the first cousin of Conservative city councillor Altaf Adalat, is accused of using the identities of two other people to place fraudulent votes in the Foleshill ward election of May 2006.Cllr Adalat won the ward by just six votes against his Labour opponent, the then sitting Labour councillor Malkiat Auluck. Hussain, aged 31, of Green Lane, Small Heath, Birmingham, has denied two charges of personation in the names of Abdul Khaliq and Mukhtar Hussain. The main evidence against Hussain is that his fingerprints have been found on two separate ballot papers.
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A word about evidence. Most of what people think is material evidence of a criminal offence is in fact either hearsay evidence (asserted, but without any proof) or circumstantial evidence (suggests guilt but does not prove it). For an introduction to the subject of evidence, try: