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An advertisment place in The Orcadian (Newspaper) reads as follows:
A reward of up to £100,000 is hereby offered for information in connection with the murder of Shamsuddin Mahmood within the Mumtaz Restaurant, Kirkwall, Orkney Islands on 2nd June 1994.
I, the advertiser, wish to remain anonymous but believe there has been a miscarrage of justice in the conviction of Michael Ross.
All information should be sent to box no. C4504, The Orcadian, Kirkwall, and will be received in strictest confidence.
The murder of a waiter in an Orkney restaurant occured 14 years ago.
Sgt Michael Ross, 30, was jailed for a minimum of 25 years for shooting Shamsuddin Mahmood in the head at close range in Kirkwall's Mumutaz restaurant.
Mr Mahmood, born in Bangladesh, was shot in full view of a room of diners by a masked gunman. Ross, who became a Black Watch sniper, was found guilty of murder in June after a six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Judge Lord Hardie told him last month that it had been a 'vicious, evil, unprovoked murder'.
Defence QC Donald Findlay revealed that Ross continued to protest his innocence and said 'everything will be done at his instruction in an attempt to clear his name'.
Ross's father - police officer Eddie Ross, who was called to the scene of the shooting - was previously jailed for four years for trying to defeat the ends of justice.
The charge was that he withheld information from investigating officers over ammunition he found in his own home. It resembled the cartridge used to kill the waiter.
He later said of his son's conviction: "No-one in our family believed he was responsible for what he was accused of."
The wealthy businessman, who placed the reward advertisment, has asked to remain anonymous, says he is 'horrified' at the chain of events which led to the life sentence handed out to a decorated war hero last month.
He says that he believes the jury's guilty verdict passed at the High Court in Glasgow against Orkney soldier, Michael Ross, to be a miscarriage of justice.
"I have followed the case very closely, reading the information available through the media reports and believe the whole case to be a sham.
"I am so outraged by the events which has led to a young man being convicted of murder that I have put up a reward of £100,000 for further information which, I believe, will lead to the real killer being identified and tried in a court," he said.
The photograph is of the victim, Shamsuddin Mahmood.
Police Force: Northern Scotland
Address:
Mumtaz Restaurant
Bridge Street
Kirkwall
ORKNEY
KW15
