Lawyer Mohammed Azeem Ud-Dean Sahu Khan told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he became so distressed after being stopped from practising law in Fiji that he contemplated suicide.
Khan said the ordeal began around 2011–2012, when he took on a case that he said later attracted improper interest from a senior government figure.
He recalled meeting the official at the Hard Rock Café, where he was abruptly confronted about the case.
“He asked me bluntly why I was delaying the matter,” Khan said.
“I told him the respondent was delaying—not me. I knew why he was asking, because the respondent’s sister worked in the Attorney-General’s Chambers.”
Khan said the questioning escalated, with the official warning him: “I can close you down tomorrow.”
“I got a bit cocky and told him I’d like to see him try,” he said. “I honestly didn’t think he would do such a thing.”
But he said events that followed left him spiraling into depression.
Khan said allegations circulating online claimed he had been guilty of misrepresentation, but he insisted these were false and stemmed from a misunderstanding about the use of a letterhead. He maintained the letterhead had been approved by the UK Law Society.
“The whole thing just didn’t make sense,” he said.
“By 2014 I hit such a low point that I actually contemplated suicide. My reputation was tarnished. People were reading things on the internet that simply weren’t true.”
Khan said he reached out to the Samaritans, a UK charity, after feeling there was “no point going on”.
A counselling session at the organisation’s Ealing office in London “brought me back”, he said, though recovery was gradual.
He credited relocating to Italy—where he began teaching English in the southern city of Matera—with restoring his sense of self.
“Matera brought me back to life,” he said. “I made friends, I loved teaching, and I felt like myself again after everything I had been through.”
