Widow learns of Britons' return

Published on Saturday 9 August 2003 01:00

WHILE many in Britain were quick to welcome the return of the convicted seven Britons from Saudi Arabia, for the widow of Christopher Rodway the move only increases the chances that her husband’s killers will never be brought to justice.

It was in November 2000 when Mr Rodway, then 47, was killed when a bomb went off underneath his car in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Mr Rodway had been living and working in the capital for eight years as a controls engineer in the IT section of the Riyadh armed forces hospital.

Jane Rodway, 53, from Reading, Berks, was in the car with her husband when the bomb went off and said yesterday she was "shocked" when given the news of the Britons’ return by detectives from Scotland Yard.

She said: "I have got to take it all in. I was told half an hour ago that they are on their way home; that is all I was told. I’m a bit shocked at the moment.

"I’m a bit stunned and worried because they all said they were innocent and, if they are, who did kill my husband and try to kill me? My understanding is they have been released through an act of clemency after my stepson forgave them. They are still guilty men." She added that she would like to meet the men face to face in her desperate search to find out the truth behind her husband’s murder.

She said: "I just think, what next? Somebody killed my husband. I need to be given evidence from somewhere. I need to know the truth.

"I would like to speak to these men. I don’t have a problem standing in front of them."