The conviction of North Finchley bombers Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh is a blot on the reputation of the British Government and is undermining the war on terrorism, according to a Labour MP.

John Austin, MP for Erith & Thamesmead, has called for the case of the 1994 bomb attack on Balfour House, North Finchley, and the Israeli Embassy, re-opened in an effort to see that justice is done'.

Alami and Botmeh were jailed for 20 years in 1996 for the two bomb attacks and had their hopes for freedom dashed at the Court of Appeal in November last year despite vital evidence linking a named terrorist organisation to the attacks.

Mr Austin has issued an Early Day Motion (EDM) a parliamentary device aimed at drawing attention to a particular issue in a bid to re-start the investigation.

The motion states: "That this house believes that winning the war against terror and the United Kingdom's reputation are ill-served by jailing the wrong people and leaving the actual bombers free; and calls on the Government to re-open the investigation, make its results publicly known, and address the human errors so that justice is done and seen to be done."

So far 27 MPs have signed up to Mr Austin's motion and Betty Hunter, secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: "I think the fact so many MPs have actually signed up shows the message about the miscarriage of justice is actually getting through."

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy said: "It is up to the British justice system to sort out who the perpetrators were. We are the victims and we were the people who were bombed."

July 3, 2002 14:00