THE sister of a British suicide bomber was barred from teaching at two primary schools after allegedly telling pupils that she was “on Osama bin Laden’s team”.

Parveen Sharif, who was acquitted yesterday of failing to tell police about her brother’s plan to blow up a Tel Aviv bar, is said to have made the inflammatory remarks after the September 11 atrocities.

Grampian School in Sinfin, Derby, and Somerlea Park School in Alfreton, Derbyshire, complained to the employment agency that supplied her and said that they did not want her to teach their pupils again.

One child, who was aged 10 at the time, told police: “She says she’s on bin Laden’s team and it’s a good job that bin Laden crashed into the twin towers.

“She says ‘Hands up everybody that’s got relations in New York?’. And then she goes, ‘Well they’re dead’.”

The Old Bailey jury that cleared Ms Sharif, and another brother, Zahid, 37, was not told of her alleged comments because a judge ruled them inadmissible in evidence.

The judge said that the children were unreliable witnesses whose statements could not be corroborated.

The case against the Sharifs hinged on the interpretation of e-mail traffic between Omar Sharif, 27, and his family in Derby before he embarked on his suicide mission in April 2003.

The bomber told his relatives to destroy “problematic material” and delete his message. Ms Sharif replied telling him to be strong, focused and show no emotion. Days later Sharif and Asif Hanif, 21, another Briton, attacked Mike’s Bar, murdering three people and injuring sixty-five others.

The jury decided that the e-mails were not sufficient proof that Ms Sharif and her brother knew about the suicide mission.

The Sharifs embraced as the not guilty verdicts were returned, signalling the end of a two-and-a-half year legal ordeal that saw them tried twice at the Old Bailey. Last year a different jury had been unable to agree verdicts on their case and a retrial was ordered. The two trials are estimated to have cost in excess of £2 million.

Ms Sharif, who was cleared of a second charge of inciting her brother, told the court that her e-mail had been misinterpreted.She said: “I cannot believe he would have contemplated such a thing — that he would think of planting a bomb and going and killing innocent people. It is beyond me.”

Outside court, Zahid Sharif said: “We want to make it clear we did not know what our brother was going to do. It shocked us as much as everyone else.”

His brother, a father of three and former student at King’s College London, did not die in the blast because his suicide belt failed to detonate. Sharif fled the scene and his body was found two weeks later in the Mediterranean.

He and Hanif, whose bomb did explode, were followers of the extremist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammad, now exiled from Britain and living in Lebanon. The bombers attended meetings of the al-Muhajiroun group and Sharif worshipped at a small mosque in Derby run by Bakri Mohammad’s followers.

A police search of his home on Northumberland Street, Derby, uncovered notes from a lecture on suicide bombings, which had been made by Tahira Tabassum, Sharif’s wife. On the same pages she had written Bakri Mohammad’s mobile phone number.

Al-Muhajiroun literature was also found at Ms Sharif’s home and her brother, Zahid, was a follower of Hizb ut Tahrir, the hardline Islamic party that Tony Blair wants to proscribe.

Ms Sharif taught at Grampian School on September 24 and 25, 2001. Complaints were made by pupils on her second day. She taught at Somerlea Park for only one day the same month before staff received complaints.

Select Education said: “These reports were both made in the week commencing October 15, 2001, and, once brought to our attention, were immediately discussed with her. Parveen Sharif accepted that the comments were inappropriate and undertook not to repeat them.”

THE DISPUTED EMAILS

22/4/2003
Omar Sharif, in Palestinian Territories, to Zahid Sharif, Derby

"I hope u are well. Please take care of yourself. Difficult times may lay ahead for you and the family in the next few weeks or months if Allah wills. Plan now and get rid of any material you may consider problematic. "Please give a copy of the following message to my wife. 'After reaching our destination Allah guided us to his friends who were very happy to see us, and they said they needed our help very much. I hope you are strong. Know that everything is just a test, and Allah will reward the patient ones. Look after Khadijah, Hamza and Asyiah [their children] and bring them up well. We did not spend a long time together in this world but I hope through Allah's mercy and your patience we can spend an eternity together. We will talk later, I hope to go and be with the best of company soon, you will hear from my friend the good news ... Make dua [prayers] that Allah makes me sincere, firm and that he accepts my actions'. Delete this message."

23/4/2003
Parveen Sharif to Omar Sharif (extract)

"We are happy that you are focused in your studies. inshAllah [God willing] we all have to be firm and focused with reality as time is slipping away, there is really no time to be weak and emotional ... when we see you again it will be like only half a day has passed ... You have no time for emotions. from parveen and everyone. May Allah take care of us and join us all soon."

26/4/2003
Omar Sharif to Parveen Sharif (extract)

"salam parv, may Allah bless you. thank you very much for the letter. it was very helpful. inshAllah we will see each other soon. remember me in your duas."

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