Anger as Muslim festival stops trial

LEADING Scottish lawyers have condemned a sheriff's decision to halt a trial yesterday after Muslim witnesses refused to give evidence because they were celebrating the end of Ramadan.

Jamie Weir, 17, of Motherwell, is accused of assaulting Nasir Ahmed by hitting him with a glass bottle in an attack last April. But as the hearing was due to start at Hamilton Sheriff Court, it was revealed that witnesses had refused to turn up.

The fiscal depute, Angus Crawford, said the witnesses, all Muslims, were unwilling to attend court during the festival of Eid. He asked for an adjournment until the festival was over. Sheriff Daniel Scullion adjourned the trial until 17 November.

In a separate case at Glasgow High Court yesterday, an accused failed to appear because he was also observing a religious festival.

Mohammed Atif Siddique of Alva, Clackmannanshire, accused of terror charges, was excused.

Last night, Donald Findlay, one of the country's leading advocates, said it was unacceptable that justice should grind to a halt over religious objections.

He said: "If the court is sitting you have to attend, and that's it."

His views were echoed by Jim Keegan, a respected solicitor-advocate, who added: "I have no knowledge of this happening before."

But Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said: "This is like asking a Catholic to come in on Christmas Day."