It has been three years since the initial arrest of Samar and Jawad, and over a year since their conviction. The efforts to prove their innocence and to raise awareness about their case are continuing. Freedom and Justice for Samar & Jawad would like to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors of our campaign for their continuing support. Below, we have outlined some of the developments in the case over the past 12 months, the activities in which the campaign has been involved, and information on plans for the near future.

Public Meetings
During the course of 1997, FJSJ organised 2 public meetings the first of which was held in March 1997. The aim of the meeting was to inform the campaign's sponsors about what had happened at the trial, outline the future focus of the campaign and provide an opportunity for sponsors to ask questions. The meeting was addressed by Alistair Lyon (from Birnberg's on behalf of the defence), George Joffe (Middle East Desk, Royal Institute of International Affairs) and Paul May (Chair of the Birmingham Six and other Campaigns). The second meeting, held in June 1997, was specifically aimed at the Arab community in London and had the same objectives as the first meeting. This was chaired by Dr Ghada Karmi and addressed by Gareth Peirce (Samar and Jawad's solicitor at Birnberg's), Bill Bowring (Haldane Society) and Sabah al-Mukhtar (Arab Lawyers Network). The speakers' presentations from this meeting have been transcribed. If you would like a copy, please contact FJSJ. In addition, FJSJ were invited to speak at two smaller meetings organised by Durham and Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

Decategorisation
Jawad and Samar are both being held as Category 'A' (maximum security) prisoners. Each year the Category 'A' Review Committee at Prison Service Headquarters reviews the status of all Category A prisoners and decides whether they ought to be decategorised. Samar and Jawad had their Category A status reviewed in August 1997. FJSJ had been circulating a petition in the preceding months. As a result, together with individual letters, more than 400 names were submitted in support of the decategorisation. The Review Committee decided against decategorising them and both are still in Category A. Decategorisation to a lower risk status would bring many benefits to both Samar and Jawad, including an easing of the stringent and harsh security measures they are currently subjected to, such as strip-searching and censorship of mail. Additionally, friends and family wishing to visit would not need to apply for Approved Visitor Status Ü a long process that includes interviews with police. Also Samar could then apply to be moved to a prison closer to London, where her legal teams, family and friends are based. This year, FJSJ will re-double their efforts to have both Samar and Jawad decategorised. The greater the number of people who make written submissions to the Category A Review Committee, the lower the chances of a rubber-stamp decision by the committee.

Anyone wishing to make a submission supporting decategorisation should write to: Category 'A' Review Committee, Prison Service Headquarters, Cleland House, Page Street, London SW1P 4LN. Submissions should tackle these issues: both Samar and Jawad were out on bail, the trial judge conceded they were not members of any organisation, neither has any history of attempting to escape, both are on enhanced regimes inside prison (for prisoners whose behaviour is exemplary), and stress their innocence and that an appeal is pending.

Appeal
Samar and Jawad's lawyers applied for leave to appeal against both their conviction and the length of the sentences they received. To date, their application was based on the following grounds: 1) an Israeli journalist engaged in a conversation with at least one member of the jury in open court. He was not disqualified and no enquiry took place, raising the question of potential contamination of the jury; 2) the decision by the judge to allow the screening of a television programme about the hijacking of an aircraft which touched on issues discussed at the trial. The program was shown days before the end of the trial and raised concerns about its impact on the jury; 3) Bias and inaccuracies in the judge's summing up. The first application was turned down. The lawyers have since renewed their application to a 3-judge court and are still waiting to hear about this. It is the aim of FJSJ to raise publicity for the appeal hearings once a date has been set and to organise observers to attend the hearings.

MI5
Early in November 1997, The Mail on Sunday published an article revealing that MI5 had received reliable reports from sources warning them of an imminent attack on the Israeli Embassy in 1994. Information arrived at MI5 one week before the actual bombing of the Embassy in 1994. The report may well contain some indication regarding the identity of the individuals and/or organisation(s) behind the bombing. FJSJ have made attempts aimed at encouraging the authorities to pass on this information to the defence, so that it may be used to strengthen the grounds of appeal. We wrote to the Home Secretary asking him to ensure full disclosure and to other MPs asking them to do what they can to assist. In addition, we have been briefing journalists who have expressed an interest in the case. Work on this aspect of the campaign is continuing. We are convinced it could provide a breakthrough. Alas, to date the prosecution has remained silent.

National 48 Hour Hunger Strike
A national hunger strike by innocent prisoners was organised, in late November 1997, by Action Against Injustice. Both Samar and Jawad participated in the hunger strike as a way of protesting their innocence. FJSJ supported the action and attended the accompanying demonstration in Birmingham City Centre on 29 November. The action was supported by the Bridgewater 4 Campaign, the Winston Silcott Campaign and the Eddie Gilfoyle Campaign to name but a few.

Summary
In the past year, we have managed to increase our sponsorship to well over 100. FJSJ has developed a multi-track approach to furthering its objectives. This includes: 1) networking and consulting with a number of organisations concerned with miscarriage of justice; 2) identifying and enlisting the help of certain key individuals including MPs and newspaper journalists; 3) lobbying and briefing relevant individuals and organisations: 4) raising awareness about the case at all levels.

Forward Plan
FJSJ hopes to produce a booklet about the case. It is due to be published in August of this year. It is envisaged that the booklet will be launched at a public meeting to which MPs, journalists from both the print and broadcast media, NGOs, members of trade unions and other relevant organisations will be invited. FJSJ plans to have a Website on the internet. This will house an on-line copy of the booklet and other campaign literature. Hopefully it will provide a forum for the exchange of information and ideas.

In order to implement all of these plans, we urgently need your donations, suggestions and help in campaign work. To find out how you can help check our aims of the campaign page.