In further remarks, he argued that there was a moral equivalence between the 9/11 hijackers and the United States when they bomb innocent civilians. On 9 January 2008, Sheriff Charlotte Coutts described Anwar's evidence as "not credible" during a trial in which he claimed to be the victim of racial abuse. In 2008, he faced allegations of contempt of court in light of a complaint by the presiding judge in the case, Colin Sutherland, after Anwar directly attacked the jury following the trial and conviction of Mohammed Siddique in the High Court of Justiciary. Sutherland accused Anwar of making unprofessional, defamatory, and factually inaccurate attacks on the judiciary, the jury, and the wider legal process, stating that Anwar was "hiding behind the cloak of his client" to make politically motivated attacks on anti-terrorism legislation. Anwar was the first lawyer in the UK to be put on trial for contempt of court for comments he made on behalf of his client at the end of a trial. Iain Banks joined Labour politician Tony Benn, George Galloway, Bashir Maan, Gareth Peirce, and others to argue that such a prosecution was detrimental to free speech. While finding Anwar's comments to be "misleading", Kenneth Osborne did not find him in contempt of court, but strongly criticised Anwar's behaviour, stating that statements from the lawyer were politically motivated and largely consisted of "angry and petulant criticism". Following a full investigation by Law Scotland, Anwar was cleared of all charges of misconduct. In January 2010, he was successful in having one of Siddique's convictions overturned at the Court of Appeal; as a result Siddique was freed from prison but remains a convicted terrorist. Awards Anwar was named Solicitor of the Year in the Herald's Law Awards of Scotland 2018. He was also named "Lawyer of the Year" at the fourteenth Scottish Legal Awards in March 2017, and "Solicitor of the Year" in the Herald's Law Awards of Scotland in November 2016. His firm picked up "Criminal Law Firm of the Year" at the Law Awards of Scotland in 2006 and 2014. At the Lloyds TSB Jewel Awards in 2007, he received the Professional Excellence Award as a "recognition of his outstanding achievements and the huge impact his work has had UK wide". In December 2007 the law magazine The Firm placed him ninth in a feature of top 100 most powerful and influential people in the