议员兼司法部长被判无罪，此前他被指控在一家涉嫌欺诈的新冠病毒检测公司中扮演了角色。
MP and justice minister has been found not guilty of charges around his role in a fraudulent Covid-19 testing company.
现年58岁的沙希德·马利克（Shahid Malik）于2005年至2010年担任迪斯伯里（Dewsbury）选区议员，并在戈登·布朗（Gordon Brown）政府的三个部门担任过大臣。
Shahid Malik, 58, was MP for Dewsbury between 2005 and 2010 and served as a minister in three departments in Gordon Brown’s government.
马利克是因RT Diagnostics公司相关罪名而被起诉的五人之一。检方表示，该公司是一家“摇钱树”公司，成立于2021年3月，旨在利用英国政府不断扩大的“检测与追踪”系统牟利。
Malik was one of five people charged with offences relating to RT Diagnostics, a company that prosecutors said was a “cash cow” set up to take advantage of the UK government’s expanding test-and-trace system in March 2021.
周四，在布拉德福德刑事法院的一场审判中，马利克被判欺诈性交易、造成公众滋扰以及洗钱罪名不成立。不同寻常的是，此次审判是在没有陪审团的情况下进行的。
On Thursday, Malik was found not guilty of fraudulent trading, causing a public nuisance and money laundering in a trial at Bradford crown court, which was, unusually, conducted without a jury.
该审判于去年10月开始，陪审团于3月开始退庭审议。4月，由于出现陪审团遭到干预的指控，法官史密斯解散了陪审团。
The trial began in October last year and jurors were sent out to start their deliberations in March. In April, they were discharged by Judge Smith after an allegation of jury tampering.
史密斯作出决定，在没有陪审团的情况下继续审判，并由他本人对判决作出裁决。
Smith took the decision to continue the trial without the jury, and that he would decide on the verdicts.
法庭审理得知，2021年3月第三次全国封锁即将结束时，马利克与39岁的药剂师、前工党市议员费萨尔·舒卡特（Faisal Shoukat）共同创办了这家企业。舒卡特被裁定三项罪名全部成立。
The court heard that Malik started the business with pharmacist and former Labour councillor Faisal Shoukat, 39, when the third national lockdown was ending in March 2021. Shoukat was found guilty of all three offences.
57岁的保罗·穆尔（Paul Moore）曾在RT Diagnostics担任高级职务，并在马利克担任议员期间担任其办公室主任，他被宣告造成公众滋扰和欺诈性交易罪名不成立。
Paul Moore, 57, who had a senior role in RT Diagnostics and was Malik’s office manager when he was an MP, was cleared of causing a public nuisance and of fraudulent trading.
64岁的该公司经理琳恩·康奈尔（Lynn Connell）和70岁的该公司临床主任亚历山大·扎尔内（Alexander Zarneh）也被宣告这两项罪名不成立。
Lynn Connell, 64, a manager at the company, and Alexander Zarneh, 70, who was its clinical director, were also cleared of the same two offences.
检方表示，RT Diagnostics在三周内创下了667万英镑的收入，但该公司设在哈利法克斯“粗陋且简陋的场所”里，并向客户提供了虚假的阴性检测结果。
Prosecutors said RT Diagnostics, which made £6.67m in three weeks, was set up in “shoddy and inadequate premises” in Halifax and gave out false negative results to customers.
辩护大律师乔纳森·莱德洛（Jonathan Laidlaw KC）表示，马利克在该企业中的角色“确实非常有限”，他只是起到了“促进者的作用——提供资金并进行引荐”。
Defence barrister Jonathan Laidlaw KC said that Malik’s role in the business had been “very limited indeed” and that he had acted as “a facilitator – putting the money up and making introductions”.
3月，莱德洛在向陪审团发表结案陈词时表示，马利克在该场所营业期间从未去过那里。
Giving his closing speech to jurors in March, Laidlaw said Malik never went to the premises when it was in operation.
他告诉法庭，在该企业运营的大部分时间里，马利克都在国外，而且没有证据表明他在海外期间曾被告知企业存在的任何问题。
He told the court that for most of the time the business was operating, Malik was out of the country and there was no evidence he was told about any of its issues while he was abroad.
莱德洛表示，这位前议员从RT Diagnostics公司获利这一事实，“绝不可能成为认定其有罪的依据”。
Laidlaw said the fact that the former MP had made money from RT Diagnostics “can’t possibly be the basis for a guilty verdict”.
法庭了解到，2021年3月第三次全国封锁即将结束时，政府正计划通过增加提供PCR检测的实验室数量来扩大其检测与追踪系统。
The court heard that as the third national lockdown was ending in March 2021, the government was looking to expand its test-and-trace system by increasing the number of laboratories offering PCR testing.
被告被控“利用”这一流程，通过一家“不达标且不符合规定”的检测公司牟利。检察官乔纳森·桑迪福德大法官称，该公司“产生了可疑的低阳性结果数量”。
The defendants were accused of “taking advantage” of that process with an “inadequate and non-compliant” testing company which, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said, “generated a suspiciously low number of positive results”.
桑迪福德表示，哈利法克斯实验室设立在不达标的场所内，墙壁和天花板都有破洞，周围还散落着垃圾。
Sandiford said the Halifax laboratory was set up in inadequate premises with holes in the walls and ceilings, and rubbish strewn around.
陪审团了解到，该公司雇佣了“许多几乎没有或完全没有新冠-19样本处理培训经验的年轻人”，并让他们在没有保持社交距离、也没有配备个人防护装备的情况下开始工作。
Jurors heard that the company employed “numerous young people who had little or no training in the handling of Covid-19 samples” and set them to work with no social distancing and no personal protective equipment.
除了萨迪克·汗之外，马利克还是首位成为议员的英国本土穆斯林，也是首位担任政府部长的穆斯林。他于2007年被任命为国际发展大臣，后来还在司法部和社区与地方政府部担任过部长职务。
Along with Sadiq Khan, Malik was the first British-born Muslim to become an MP and the first to become a government minister. He was appointed as an international development minister in 2007 and he later had ministerial jobs at the Department of Justice and the Department for Communities and Local Government