Letter to Director of Public Prosecutions - August 2000

Mr David Calvert-Smith QC
The Director of Public Prosecutions
Crown Prosecution Service Headquarters
50 Ludgate Hill
London EC4M 7EX

Dear Mr Calvert-Smith

Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh

I write as a supporter of the campaign to free Ms Samar Alami and Mr Jawad Botmeh, wrongfully convicted in 1996 of conspiracy to cause explosions in relation to the 1994 London bombings at the Israeli Embassy and Balfour House.

After Court of Appeal hearings in March and May 1999, Ms Alami and Mr Botmeh were granted leave to appeal their convictions on grounds relating to the fact that relevant evidence in the case, in the form of specific and reliable intelligence information received by MI5 prior to the bombings, had been withheld by the security services and was not disclosed at trial.

The fact that MI5 had been warned about the bombings contradicts the main planks of the Crown's case at trial, namely that there was an "intelligence vacuum" which supported their contention that the bombings were carried out by a small, previously unknown group of dissident Palestinians, including Ms Alami and Mr Botmeh.

However the fact that MI5 had, after all, received intelligence information warning them of the impending bombings demonstrates that, rather than an "intelligence vacuum", there was actually a veritable intelligence mountain. And the existence of all this intelligence information indicates, in turn, that the bombings were probably carried out by some international terrorist organisation and/or governmental agency, precisely the kind of groups which the prosecution case had ruled out and to which the trial judge accepted that neither Ms Alami nor Mr Botmeh had any connection.

At the very least this would seem to raise serious doubts over the safety of Ms Alami and Mr Botmeh's convictions.

As a consequence I ask that you please, finally, put Ms Alami and Mr Botmeh's years of agony at an end by accepting that their convictions are unsafe and agreeing not to contest their forthcoming appeal, leaving them free to rejoin their families and attempt to rebuild their lives.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely