UK: Israeli embassy convictions
01 November 2001
On 1 November, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal by Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh against their convictions for the bombing of the Israeli embassy and Balfour House in London in 1994. Samar, a Lebanese-Palestinian, and Jawad, a Palestinian, were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment in 1996 after being convicted of conspiracy to cause eplosions. Both have consistantly maintained their innocence. Their appeal was based on the fact that there was no direct evidence against them, both had alibis and in particular the failure of the prosecution to disclose crucial evidence (see Statewatch vol 9 no 1, vol 9 nos 3 & 4).
In 1997 the former MI5 operative, David Shayler, revealed that the security services had received reliable information beforehand indicating that a known organisation - with no links to Samar or Jawad - was planning to bomb the Israeli embassy. While Shayler's revelation was initially discredited by the government - Foreign secretary Robin Cook described Shayler as a "fantacist" - it was later admitted by the security services. It has since been disclosed that this information had not been acted upon, because of "at least six instances of "human error".
In October 2000 the Appeal court proceded with a closed hearing in the absence of the defence team at which the prosecution presented the documents that had not been disclosed at the trial. This resulted in the release of a single piece of evidence - a handwritten note outlining the information received by the intelligence services before the bombings that confirmed Shayler's claims, (the note added that later information indicated that the organisation was not responsible for the bombings).
Throughout Novembers appeal the defence repeated specific requests for further information relating to the London attacks, as well as others in Argentina and Panama. Other information, pointing to a suspect unconnected to those convicted, was also excluded. Amnesty International has also expressed concern that Samar and Jawad:
have been denied their right to a fair trial because they have been denied full disclosure - both during and after the trial - of all information, including intelligence information, that may have been relevant to the investigation of the bombings.
MI5, having initually claimed that there was an "intelligence vacuum" around the case, then admitted that information had not been disclosed at the trial due to "human error". They then refused to disclose it, despite numerous requests from Samar and Jawad's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, claiming that it was not relevant. Following disclosures by David Shayler which showed that the information was pertinant, MI5 acknowledged that there had indeed been a warning about the attack, but argued that it didn't impact on this particular case. Their claim is challenged by Amnesty, who conclude that:
This case highlights some of the dangers of the use of Public Immunity certificates to block disclosure of evidence and raises questions about the accountability of the intelligence services
Freedom for Samar & Jawad campaign: BM Box FOSA, London WC1N 3XX; email: postmaster@frresaj.org.uk; www.freesaj.org.uk