THOUSANDS charged with race hate crimes in Scotland are walking free, fuelling accusations that the justice system is a "soft touch" for racists.
Despite 10,173 people being charged in the past three years with a statutory racist crime or a crime aggravated by racism, only 4180 - fewer than half - have been convicted. More than 1500 suspects had their charges dropped before they came to court.
The statistics highlight evidence of a "police lottery", revealing that in some police areas victims are twice as likely to see their alleged attacker in court as in others.
Scottish Muslim leaders said last night the figures would reinforce the existing perception that racial abuse or harassment was not worth reporting because such crimes were not taken seriously.
Asians and Muslims have reported increased abuse in the wake of the London bombings, and so, campaigners argue, there has never been a more crucial time to prosecute racists.
Last Tuesday, a 16-year-old Asian boy was attacked in daylight in Edinburgh by a white skinhead. On July 7, the day of the London bombings, the Shah Jalal mosque and a Pakistani centre in Edinburgh were defaced with racist graffiti.
Christine Grahame, the SNP's social justice spokeswoman, who uncovered the Crown Office figures, said the bombings had brought a "heightened importance" to prosecuting race crimes. She was appalled by the "substantial failure rate" in securing convictions.
Over the past three years, the Crown Office figures show a rise in race crime charges for all police areas. However, last year alone, around 900 people charged with race crimes did not go to court.
Osama Saeed, the Scottish spokesman of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We know there is still a reluctance to report these crimes because there is a perception that it won't be taken seriously."
Aamer Anwar, a lawyer and race campaigner, said that, despite vocal commitments by politicians, race crimes were "almost grudgingly" dealt with.
A Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service spokeswoman said: "We are committed to using the full extent of the law to tackle this area of crime robustly. Any report of race crime is treated as a priority."
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