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Palestinians denied justice

01 November 2002

Leave to appeal the convictions of Samar Alamai and Jawad Botmeh, provisionally accepted in July, has been rejected by the Law Lords. Samar and Jawad were convicted of conspiracy to cause explosions at the Israeli embassy and Balfour House in London in 1994 in a trial that dismissed pertinent evidence and accepted that "human errors" led to failures to disclose police and MI5 evidence that might have had a bearing on the case. Amnesty International said: that failure to disclose crucial evidence violates the appellant's right to a fair trial. The defence will now be applying to the European Court of Human Rights and will "consider" an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. However, supporters of Samar and Jawad point out that this route will take many years The Free Samar & Jawad campaign has published a comprehensive overview of the circumstances surrounding the wrongful convictions of Samar and Jawad. "Infinite Justice" provides a useful insight into the powerful mechanisms of the secret state prior to the plethora of emergency anti-terrorist legislation that is sweeping across Europe. The defence says that unsourced "intelligence", disinformation, the withholding of essential evidence and legal prevarication were used to convict Samar and Jawad, leading to widespread criticism of the handling of their case. These mechanisms have become more and more common in the UK today. Infinite Justice: Human Rights Breaches and the Wrongful Convictions of Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh, July 2002, www.freesaj.org.uk