CPS: failed to make enquiries into Bin Laden joke claim



The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was guilty of racial discrimination in its treatment of an Asian solicitor, the Court of Appeal has ruled at the end of proceedings lasting almost five years.



Halima Aziz, a Muslim, was suspended from work at Bradford CPS soon after the 11 September 2001 terror attacks. It was alleged she had made offensive remarks to staff at Bradford Magistrates' Court, including a joking reference to being a friend of Osama Bin Laden. Her remark was said to have been heard by Asian and British youths, causing a disturbance between them.



The CPS's disciplinary code was invoked and Ms Aziz was suspended from duties on 10 October 2001. She was reinstated a week later, but by then had become unwell and unfit for work.



An employment tribunal found that the CPS had acted in breach of its own disciplinary code and treated Ms Aziz in a less favourable way than it would have treated a white solicitor. It said the CPS had failed to comply with its duty to enquire into the reliability of the complaint before suspending her, and had wrongly denied her representation.



This was overturned by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), which ruled the CPS had not breached the code of conduct and so was not guilty of discrimination.



The Court of Appeal last month reinstated the original finding. Lady Justice Smith said the tribunal had been 'entirely justified in holding that Ms Aziz was subjected to a detriment as the result of being suspended without there having been any adequate preliminary investigation of the reliability of the complaint against her'.



A CPS spokeswoman said it will not appeal: 'Ms Aziz remains a CPS employee and there will now be a remedies hearing.' She said the service will consider what lessons it should learn from the judgment.



The Gazette was unable to contact Ms Aziz.



Jonathan Rayner