Anger at Saudi bomb claims

The British government has made a formal complaint to Saudi Arabia in response to security officials in Riyadh linking the murder of a Briton in a car bombing to an illegal alcohol racket.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, is understood to be angry at suggestions by unnamed officials that Simon Veness, 35, a British banker, was blown up on Thursday as part of what the Saudis insist is an alcohol turf war.

Five other Britons, two of whom are thought to have been sentenced to death, are in prison over an earlier bombing campaign during which another Englishman, Christopher Rodway, died. They have withdrawn confessions thought to have been made under duress.

Foreign Office sources say the British chargé d'affaires in Riyadh, Dominic Asquith, handed a written complaint to the Saudi authorities yesterday morning. Mr Straw was said to be concerned the officials had told some Saudi journalists that Mr Veness had been involved in illegal activity.

Ghazi Algosaibi, the Saudi ambassador, had also issued a statement in which he described claims that the bomb was probably the work of an Islamist terrorist cell as "pure speculation". A source said: "It seems grossly unfair to tarnish Mr Veness's name like this. We thought it only right to complain to put a halt to whatever briefing is going on in Riyadh."

Mr Straw has asked British officials in Saudi Arabia to investigate the claims against Mr Veness. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was "very concerned" about them.

Mr Veness, from Kent, was blown up near the al-Nakheel Westerners residential compound. He was working as an investment risk controller for Al-Saudi al-Fransi bank in Riyadh. He and his pregnant South African wife were due to return to London in two weeks.