A Muslim Crown prosecutor has won a case against her employers after she was suspended amid false accusations that she made racist comments about the events of 11 September in a magistrates' court.

Halima Aziz was reported and then suspended by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) a month after the 9/11 attacks for causing a disturbance at the Bradford court by allegedly remarking that the tragedy was 'all the fault of the Jews'. However, a subsequent internal CPS investigation found Ms Aziz had not made any discriminatory remark or caused a disturbance.


The Leeds employment tribunal found that the CPS had breached its own disciplinary code by failing to make proper enquiries and evaluate the evidence.


It added that 'because of the race and origins of the applicant, the respondents assumed that the complaint against her had substance and that was not an assumption they would have reached in that way if the applicant was a white male'.


The Society of Black Lawyers demanded to know whether Ms Aziz's treatment would result in disciplinary action against those involved.


'The public needs to have confidence that racism has been eradicated by the CPS,' a spokeswoman argued. 'However, cases such as this show that the CPS is badly failing its ethnic minority staff.'


Ms Aziz's solicitor Wajid Khalil, senior partner at Leeds firm Kamrans, said her treatment was 'ironic, considering the everyday task of the CPS is to evaluate evidence'.


A CPS spokeswoman said it was disappointed in the tribunal's decision and was considering whether to appeal.


'The events concerned took place in 2001 and CPS has made significant progress since then on equality issues, which we take very seriously - for example, we now have a race equality scheme and work in partnership with the Commission for Racial Equality,' she added.