Lottery-funded group backs bombers

Controversy over a lottery-funded group which helps immigrants fight deportation deepened today as it emerged that it is supporting two Palestinian bombers who "waged war in London".

The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) is already under scrutiny after Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered an investigation into its activities - amid widespread concern over a £340,000 payout from the national lottery's Community Fund.

Anger over the grant, which has riled other charities and raised fears that people may boycott the lottery, is set to intensify after revelations that the group is supporting the cases of Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh - who were convicted of the 1994 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Kensington.

The judge at their 1996 Old Bailey trial said only "providence" had prevented people being killed and that their attack, which also targeted a Jewish charity, had been the "waging of war in London" in order to destabilise the Middle East peace process.

The pair are due to be deported after serving their 20-year sentences but their supporters argue that banker's daughter Alami, 34, and businessman Botmeh, 32, had no link to terrorist groups.

Former student Alami, of Kensington, and Botmeh, of Bloomsbury, both came from respected Arab families and lived comfortable middle-class existences. They plotted the bombings at English universities and in London. On the same day in July 1994, they bombed the embassy, close to Kensington Palace, and the Joint Israeli Appeal at Balfour House in Finchley.

The first bomb contained between 30 and 50lb of high explosive and the blast was heard as far away as Westminster and the West End. The second, 12 hours later, was smaller but both bombs caused widespread damage and injured passers-by, raising the spectre of a full-scale terror campaign to the capital's streets.

Also among the NCADC's 44 clients is Shafique Ur Rehman, 30, an imam at a mosque in Oldham who has been fighting deportation for four years since MI5 alleged he actively supported a Kashmiri terror group and represented a "danger to society".

The latest development will create further tension between Mr Blunkett, who has expressed concern over the group's "political" aims, and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, whose department oversees the lottery.

Yesterday, as Ms Jowell attempted a show of unity with Mr Blunkett by agreeing that some form of inquiry was necessary, it emerged that guidelines she personally approved in April paved the way for millions of pounds in lottery cash to be spent on asylum seekers and refugees - including the NCADC.

The Birmingham-based group, which was set up in 1995, is demanding the repeal of Britain's asylum laws and claims that the Government is "hounding" illegal immigrants.

It promotes its cases on a website that advertises a " network of activists" around Britain.

Although groups funded by the lottery are allowed to campaign, they are banned from involvement in political activity.