THE
PROSECUTION case against all the defendants initially stemmed from Jawad's questionable
connection with the purchase of the Audi and an supposed 'link' heavily relied
upon between a nickname he sometimes used, which sounds like 'Jaffer', and the
word 'Jaffa in the name of the unknown group who claimed responsibility for
the bombings in the claim letters.
'Jaffa' is really the name of a Palestinian town in what is now Israel. Whereas
the name Jawad sometimes used was 'Ja'affarÕ, actually a common Arab male that
is pronounced with a hard emphasis on the final syllable, although an English
person who hears it may well write it as 'Jaffer'. The differences in meaning
and pronunciation between Jawad's nickname and that used in the claim letter
were explained by a linguistics professor from London University. But it is
absurd to think that anyone would be involved in bombings such as these and
then use their own nickname when claiming responsibility for them.
Samar and Jawad did sometime use false names in certain areas of their lives.
This too was seized upon by the prosecution as evidence of their involvement
in the conspiracy. Why else, they asked, would Samar and Jawad behave so secretly
and suspiciously?
Well, as Dr Uri Davis, the respected author of several books about the Palestinian-Israeli
struggle, explained to the court, Palestinians use false names, or aliases,
quite simply because it is often not safe to do otherwise. If you have any kind
of political involvement, even as a student in GUPS, it is quite normal to use
a false name to protect your identity. In the Arab world political activities
are not conducted openly. Mossad, the Israeli security service is known to be
active in western Europe in gathering information on Palestinians. There have
been frequent assassinations and kidnappings by Israeli squads in western Europe.
Jawad used false names sometimes when he bought used cars at auctions, but for
a more straightforward reason - to avoid paying road tax or for any parking
tickets he would get in the short time he would have the car. This included
the false name that was recorded as 'Jaffa' or Jaffer. A senior member of Newham
Council's Parking Enforcement Department confirmed in evidence that this giving
of false names and addresses at car auctions was a common practice which often
made it impossible for them to trace people who owed money on parking tickets.
Nothing sinister there.
Samar used a false name when she hired the Nationwide locker, understandable
perhaps considering the contents. She also used a false name when she hired
a postal box to receive some of her political publications. She lived in a flat
that she shared with her parents and her sister and she wanted some privacy.
Neither the postal box nor anything that she received in it was claimed to have
played any part in the alleged conspiracy, or in any other.
Even the judge accepted that neither Samar nor Jawad had ever given a false
name or address to the police or any other authority. Indeed, Jawad was stopped
by the police for speeding on the M1 on 14 June 1994, while he was with Rida
Mughrabi on the way to a car auction in Northampton. Jawad not only gave his
right name to the police, but when summoned he wrote to the court ensuring that
his name and details had been properly recorded. Mughrabi did not find the car
he was looking for at that auction and so the next day they went to the Milton
Keynes auction which is when Mughrabi bought the Audi using the name 'George'.
