A senior prosecuting solicitor in Bradford was suspended after being accused of claiming the September 11 tragedy "was all the fault of the Jews," a hearing was told.

Crown Prosecutor Halima Aziz, pictured, was told to clear her desk after her bosses received a complaint from a security guard at the city's magistrates Court, who claimed to have overheard the alleged anti-semitic remarks.

She claims her bosses alleged that she had been heard clapping and cheering in court after hearing of the events in New York.

Miss Aziz is seeking to take her employers, The Crown Prosecution Service, to an employment tribunal on the grounds of racial and sexual discrimination but the CPS say they will "rigorously defend" the action.

A preliminary hearing sitting in Leeds heard how Miss Aziz, of Manningham, had worked at the court for ten years before the alleged incidents occurred.

Chairman of the tribunal panel, David Burton, told yesterday's hearing: "The brief background relates to the fact that on September 25, 2001, an incident occurred in Bradford Magistrates Court.

"Miss Aziz was attending the court as part of her duty as Crown prosecutor.

"It is alleged that as she attended the court building, she made an inappropriate remark which was, or could have been, overheard by others within the court precincts who may have caused a disturbance as a consequence of the remarks made by her.

"Those remarks were allegedly overheard by a member of the Corps of Commissionaires (who provide security at Bradford Magistrates Court). That security officer thought it appropriate to report the matter to the Clerk of Justices who, through the Magistrates Court Committee, raised a complaint with the CPS."

Miss Aziz told the hearing: "They (the court committee) received an allegation by an employee of the Corps of Commissionaires that I had said it (September 11) was 'all the fault of the Jews that have flown the planes into the Twin Towers, not the Muslims'.

She told the panel that she had also been accused of apparently "cheering and clapping in court when the September 11 incident happened."

During the hearing, Miss Aziz claimed the security guard had made it up. "He initially made a remark about me being a security risk and I jokingly replied: 'As if I'm a friend of Bin Laden'."

The hearing was sitting to decide whether Miss Aziz should be able to take the Magistrates Court Committee and the Corps of Commissionaires to an employment tribunal.

But Mr Burton said the Magistrates Court Committee and the Corps of Commissionaires were not her employers and she did not have a formal contractual employment with them.

It was also deciding whether she had submitted her claim in time and whether the tribunal had the jurisdiction to deal with it.

It decided to hear her claim against the CPS in September.

After the hearing, Neil Franklin, Chief Prosecutor for Bradford, said: "The CPS is rigorously and strongly defending Halima's action against it."

Miss Aziz, 43, told the Telegraph & Argus after the hearing: "They suspended me on October 10, 2001. Then they lifted the suspension on October 17. But I have not been back - I have a sick note for another two months, due to depression.

"All I said was the Arabs don't like America because of its relationship with Israel, but he (the security guard) claimed I was saying 'Up the Taliban' and then the CPS received a letter saying I'd made an inappropriate remark.

"They suspended me without even asking my side of things. They said 'get out of the building, you can't speak to anybody," then told me to come back."

She said she would now try to take the Magistrates Court Committee and the Corps of Commissionaires to the County Court.

She said: "I feel like everybody's been laughing at me. They wouldn't do this to a white person or a male. They've done it because I'm black and female."