Green campaigners accuse FBI of covering car bomber's tracks

One of the most bizarre episodes in the history of American environmentalism came to court yesterday, with members of the tree preservation group Earth First! squaring up to the Federal Bureau of Investigation over a 1990 car bombing in which two activists were blown up, only to be accused of planting the bomb themselves.

Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari were driving through Oakland, near San Francisco, during a busy summer of opposition to redwood logging in northern California when a nail bomb concealed under the driver's seat exploded. Mr Cherney received only minor injuries, but Ms Bari suffered a crushed pelvis, a dislocated back and extensive nerve damage that paralysed her right foot and permanently numbed her sexual organs.

The FBI, with the Oakland police, quickly accused the pair of making the bomb themselves and searched their houses for further evidence. Although the case against them fell apart in a few days – it became clear that the bomb was not, as initially suspected, sitting on the back seat in plain view – the investigation continued for three years, casting a cloud ofsuspicion over the victims of the bombing and the environmentalist movement as a whole.

Although Earth First! has resorted to sabotage such as driving spikes into tree trunks to block the loggers' chainsaws, it has always espoused a strict philosophy of non-violence towards people.

Over time, Mr Cherney and Ms Bari became more vocal in accusing the authorities of violating their civil rights and failing to investigate other leads in the crime.

That accusation is at the heart of the current lawsuit, which Mr Cherney is fighting alongside Ms Bari's estate – she died of cancer in 1997 and made her fellow victim promise not to let the matter drop.

"Someone almost killed me and ruined my life, and they think I should be satisfied with the finding I didn't bomb myself," an angry Ms Bari said in 1993.

A key part of the case will hinge on a letter sent to a local newspaper six days after the bombing, in which someone calling himself "the Lord's avenger" took responsibility for the bombing and included a number of key details about it. The possibility that a right-wing religious group was involved was never followed up, however. Mr Cherney and Ms Bari are the only suspects the authorities have ever considered.

Last week, Mr Cherney told reporters: "The FBI helped to cover the bomber's tracks. Every day I live with the knowledge that no one has ever seriously tried to arrest the person responsible for a bomb that could have killed me."

The FBI and police deny any wrongdoing. The case, being heard in Oakland, is expected to last six weeks.