Britons jailed for bombings freed by Saudi Arabia

Five Britons and a Canadian, jailed during a bombing campaign in Saudi Arabia, arrived back in Britain this afternoon after being granted royal clemency.

The men - two of whom faced possible public beheading - were accused of being involved in gang warfare to control the lucrative bootleg alcohol trade in the Middle Eastern kingdom although they denied it.

They were said by the Saudi authorities to be alcohol bootleggers who used explosives as part of a bloody turf war.

But the men's families have always said the charges were trumped up and the bombings in November 2000 were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists targeting Westerners.

Sandy Mitchell, aged 44, from Kirkintilloch, north Glasgow, and William Sampson, also from Glasgow, who has a Canadian passport, faced possible public beheading for allegedly planting a car bomb that killed Briton Christopher Rodway.

The other Britons, James Cottle from Manchester, Peter Brandon from Cardiff, Les Walker from the Wirral, and James Patrick Lee, were serving 12-year sentences.

Stephen Jakobi, director of campaigning organisation Fair Trials Abroad, said: "We are absolutely delighted to hear this news. It sounds like a clean sweep on the British people, but we are concerned for a Belgian, Raf Schyvens, about whom there is no news."

The widow of Christopher Rodway, the man killed by the bomb blast, said she was "shocked" by the news, given to her by Scotland Yard.

Jane Rodway, 53, from Reading, Berks, who was in the car with her husband when the bomb went off: "I'm a bit shocked at the moment. I have got to take it all in. 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. I just think, what next? Somebody killed my husband. I need to be given evidence from somewhere. I need to know the truth," she said.

Southport MP John Pugh, who campaigned to have the men released, attributed the success to a "nice cop, nasty cop" approach by the Foreign Office and MPs.

He said: "The release has been confirmed to us by Saudi officials as well as the men's legal team. It is very positive news.

"We took a delegation to the Saudi embassy about six weeks ago and we met with Prince Turki Al-Faisal. "He urged us to believe there would be some movement and we waited with baited breath.

"It is an extremely positive outcome and we do think the vocal pressure exerted by MPs helped to concentrate the minds of everybody.

"It was a mixture of nice cop, nasty cop. The Foreign Office adopted a softly, softly approach, which I think they needed to do, but some of us felt that something more forceful needed to be done.

"The two strategies converged and brought about this positive outcome."

Dr Pugh began campaigning for the men after one of his constituents, David Brown, raised their plight.

Mr Brown was blinded in one of the bombings and briefly detained as a suspect. He was released and returned to the UK, convinced that the convicted "bombers" were innocent.

Dr Pugh added that the Saudi authorities are likely to continue to claim the men are guilty. He said: "Our meeting focused not on the niceties of the Saudi legal system but more on the welfare of the men.

"I don't imagine the Saudis will come out and publicly say their legal system is flawed. They will probably continue to say they caught the right men and this is more an act of mercy," he said.

The men made televised confessions to being involved in bombings but many people questioned the authenticity of the admissions amid claims of torture.

Each confession was almost identical in detail and each individual wore the same drained expression of submission.

Mr Mitchell, a medical technician, and Mr Sampson, a British paramedic who had emigrated to Canada, were paraded on Saudi state television in February 2001.

They appeared to be reading from a script as they said they were acting on "orders" from an unspecified source when they carried out two bombings in Riyadh three months earlier, killing fellow Briton Mr Rodway.

Then, in August 2001, Mr Cottle, Mr Brandon, Mr Lee and Mr Walker appeared on television to admit their role in a number of attacks between December 2000 and March 2001.

Again, apparently being prompted, they confessed to three bombings in Riyadh and Al-Khobar.

The men later withdrew the confessions. But the Saudi government hailed them as a crucial victory in proving the stability of the kingdom and announced to the world that they had caught those behind the attacks - and that they were "all British citizens".

Other theories in Riyadh pointed to the work of Islamic fundamentalists who opposed the Saudi government's close relationship with the US and British governments. Saudi authorities dismissed the suggestion.

In April last year Mitchell and Sampson were sentenced to death in "chop-chop square" for their part in the killing of Mr Rodway.

The remaining four Britons were each jailed for 18 years.

Their families clung to hope, which was boosted by the release in May of Gary O'Nions, a British businessman who had been jailed for the manufacture and distribution of alcohol.

Days after he was freed, the suicide attacks on western housing compounds in Riyadh, which killed 34 people and were believed to be the work of Osama bin Laden's al Qa'ida network, appeared to provide proof that home-grown terror groups do exist in the Middle Eastern country.

The defence counsel for the six filed a petition for clemency to Saudi King Fahd, and their lawyer Salah Hejailan revealed that it appeared to have been "positively received".

Sheikh Salah Al-Hejailan, a solicitor for the Britons, paid tribute to those who had worked to secure their release.

He told Sky News: "We had applied for clemency five months ago and I'm pleased that that has been granted due to the good consideration by the Saudi government, the superb effort by our foreign minister and, on the side of your government, the British Ambassador to Riyadh.

"They have done an excellent job in securing the clemency.

"Having said that, my clients have insisted all along that they are not admitting guilt."

He said the men had retracted their confessions made on Saudi state television.

"They have retracted those confessions and they insisted on their retraction for a long time now.

"They have refused the concept of plea bargains but at the same time, to be fair to them, they have asked for clemency and the merciful consideration of the authorities.

"They have prepared themselves for political intervention in this matter and we have applied successfully for the clemency and it was granted," he said.

"The file is closed from the Saudi point of view," Mr al-Hejailan said.

He said the men had left the Gulf state and were expected back in the UK later today.