Anti-Semitism (illustration)
Anti-Semitism (illustration)Israel news photo: archive

Nazir Ahmed, the British peer who was due to face a hearing after reportedly blaming Jewish-owned media groups for his imprisonment, has resigned from the Labour Party, AFP reported on Tuesday.

Lord Ahmed was due before Labour's ruling National Executive Committee on Wednesday to explain remarks in which he allegedly blamed the Jewish-run news organizations for his dangerous driving sentence.

The peer, who was suspended by the party in March pending investigations, claims he does not remember making the comments and said he was "very disappointed" at his treatment.

He nevertheless later apologized for his "unacceptable" remarks.

"I completely and unreservedly apologize to the Jewish community, to the judiciary, to the newspaper owners," Ahmed told the Huffington Post in March.

Ahmed was jailed in 2009 after being found guilty of sending text messages before his car was involved in a fatal motorway smash.

The Times reported in March that he had told an Urdu-language broadcaster in Pakistan that the Jewish-owned press had engineered a harsher sentence due to his support for Palestinians.

"My case became more critical because I went to Gaza to support Palestinians. My Jewish friends who own newspapers and TV channels opposed this," the Times reported him as saying.

Ahmed said on Tuesday he had made the decision to resign with a "heavy heart".

"I do not recall when this interview was held, where this interview was held and nor the person who carried out this interview," he added in his resignation letter.

"All I know is what has been reported in the Times. I reject the core story that emerges out of the alleged interview."

Last year Nadir announced a bounty for the capture of U.S. President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush, after the U.S. placed a bounty on a terrorist.

Ahmed said the bounty on Saeed is “an insult to all Muslims and by doing so President Obama has challenged the dignity of the Muslim Ummah.”

He added, “If the U.S. can announce a reward of $10 million for the captor of Hafiz Saeed, I can announce a bounty of 10 million pounds on President Obama and his predecessor George Bush.”

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of the Shavuot holiday in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)