How the Eton-educated wartime Aga Khan offered '30,000 armed Arabs' to help Hitler - but still evaded treason trial - News

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Britain dropped a secret plan to charge the Aga Khan's grandfather with treason despite evidence that he offered to help Hitler in the war, documents just released reveal.

Ministers shelved the proposed prosecution of Sultan Muhammad Shah – who was Aga Khan III at the time – for fear it would inflame Muslims.

The spiritual leader of the world's Zizari Ismaili Muslims was accused of pledging to raise an army of 30,000 Arab troops to back a German occupation of Egypt, Syria and Palestine.

Evidence emerged at the end of the war when the Allies captured German archives and interrogated their intelligence agents.

Details of the case have remained top-secret for more than 60 years and were declassified only last week, with their release by the National Archives at Kew.

In a 1942 memo submitted to the German Foreign Office by a Nazi agent, Aga Khan III expressed admiration for the puppet Vichy government in occupied France.

The Eton-educated racehorse owner then offered to raise troops in the Middle East to fight the Free French, saying: "If you give me ten to 15 days warning, I will have for you 30,000 armed Arabs, amongst my most faithful disciples, who will shoot the Gaullistes in the back."

As he was a British subject, officials concluded he could face treason charges and the death penalty. But it was eventually decided disloyalty by the then Aga Khan, who died in 1957, "could not be proved".