Cleared: The Bomber's Sister 'Who Praised Bin Laden'

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 11-29-2005 | John Steele

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Cleared: the bomber's sister 'who praised bin Laden'

By John Steele, Crime Correspondent
(Filed: 29/11/2005)

The brother and sister of one of the first two British suicide bombers were cleared at the Old Bailey yesterday of knowing about his mission and failing to alert the authorities before the attack.

Parveen and Zahid Sharif, whose brother, Omar Sharif, joined Asif Hanif in a suicide mission to Israel in 2003, were found not guilty in a retrial after the first jury failed to reach a verdict.

Zahid and Parveen Sharif leave the Old Bailey yesterday

Parveen, 37, a supply teacher in Derby, was also cleared of inciting her brother to go through with the bombing. She and her 38-year-old brother, a Derby businessman, embraced in the dock.

The pair, who had Muslim fundamentalist literature in their homes, had denied the charges. The jury did not hear allegations made to police that Parveen had told schoolchildren after the September 11 attacks that she was "on bin Laden's team" and that the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York was "a good job". The judge in the original trial ruled that evidence inadmissible.

The case involved the first high-profile use of the "failure to disclose" offence which was added to the Terrorism Act 2000 by Parliament after the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

Omar Sharif saw himself as a martyr

Hanif's bomb exploded in the early hours of April 30, 2003, killing himself and three people and injuring 65 in Mike's Place, a busy seafront bar in Tel Aviv. Omar, from Derby, was with him but fled after his device failed to explode. His body was discovered in the sea off Israel 12 days later.

Hanif, 21, from London, and Omar, 27, saw themselves as the first British martyrs to the causes of Islam and the Palestinian people, the court heard. Jonathan Laidlaw, prosecuting, said the attack had been organised and sponsored by the military wing of the Palestinian religious group, Hamas - the first time Hamas had used non-Palestinian volunteers for a terrorist attack.

The trial centred on what Parveen and Zahid knew. Omar's wife, Tahira, was cleared at the first trial of failing to disclose information. In a crucial e-mail on April 23, Parveen allegedly wrote: "We all have to be firm and focused with reality, as time is slipping away and there is really no time to be weak and emotional.

"It does not matter of consequences to us in this life because we do not fear … When we see you again it will be like only half a day has passed."

It added: "Stay focused and determined. You have no time for emotions. May Allah take care of us all…"

Mr Laidlaw suggested that it was "clear that she was encouraging her brother to go through with the bombing".

However, Parveen told the jury it was "a sick idea" to suggest that she had encouraged her brother. She had not believed that he was a bomber until she saw a video, issued by Hamas nearly a year later, of him and Hanif holding guns. "It is not the Omar I know," she said.

Zahid Sharif told the jury: "He has never talked to me about anything like that. I had no idea he was going to kill himself. In the end he did not kill himself, or so they say."

The Crown had suggested that when assessing how much the sister and brother knew, members of the jury should consider that in both of their homes police found material from the extremist Muslim intellectual group, Hizb ut-Tahrir.

There was also evidence that Zahid had an interest in al-Muhajiroun, a group headed by Omar Bakri Mohammed. Both groups face being outlawed in Britain.

Parveen claimed that she was a devout, moderate Muslim.

In ruling the evidence about her comments on the September 11 attacks inadmissible at the original trial, the Recorder of London, Michael Hyam, said: "Although a complaint about what Parveen was alleged to have said was made within a day or two, no note was made at the school or anywhere else as to what she had said."

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[Cacique]

I really am getting tired of the word "moderate". The extremist nazis wanted to shoot people. The moderate and humane nazis wanted to gas people, they thought shooting was too stressful for the troops. By analogy, I suspect that moderate muslims want to kills us by poison instead of blowing us up.

[manic4organic]

Maybe some patriotic Brit can "stop" her on her way out of town.