A British Conservative MP will appear in court next month after being charged with sexual assault on a minor, a charge he denied "very firmly" on Friday.
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Imran Ahmad Khan, 47, MP for Wakefield (Northern England) and member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008. He appeared in court on Thursday in Westminster, London, by videoconference from the law firm representing him, and pleaded "not guilty". Judge Paul Goldspring has referred the case to the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London, where the MP will appear on July 15.
In a statement posted on Twitter on Friday, Imran Ahmad Khan said he denied "with the greatest firmness this accusation, which dates back more than thirteen years." “To be accused of something I didn't do is shocking, unsettling and traumatic,” he wrote, saying he was determined to “work to prove his innocence”. Before being elected as an MP in 2019, Imran Ahmad Khan worked for the United Nations as a special assistant for political affairs in Mogadishu, Somalia, his website says.