Muslim lawyer gets 600,000 pounds racial discrimination award over bin Laden
remark
London, Sep 6 : A British Muslim lawyer, who was suspended from work by the Crown
Prosecution Service after joking she was treated like a friend of Osama bin Laden, has
been awarded a record 600,000 pound payout for racial discrimination.
An employment tribunal found that there was "not a shred of evidence" to support the
treatment of Halima Aziz by the CPS and ordered it to reinstate her and issue a full and
unequivocal apology, The Telegraph reported.
Halima Aziz made the remark a fortnight after the September 11 attacks, and was
suspended by the CPS following a complaint from the court. She was accused of inciting a
riot, expressing anti-American sentiments and associating herself with Bin Laden.
She won a race and sex discrimination case against them in 2004 on grounds that if she
had been a white man she would not have been treated that way.
The dispute continued for seven years - at a cost of more than a million pounds to the
taxpayer - because the CPS had remained "in a state of denial" about the case, a new
tribunal has ruled.
The controversy started in 2001 when a security guard at Bradford magistrates' court
made a comment about her being a security risk.
Aziz allegedly replied: "I'm a friend of Bin Laden's." As news of the remark spread,
reports claimed that it had provoked clashes between white and Asian youths at the court
building.
--ANI
