Shayler faces arrest in Britain

By Thomas Abraham

LONDON, AUG. 20. A former British intelligence officer who made damaging allegations about the British secret services, including details of a plot to kill the Libyan leader, Col. Gadhafi, is to return to Britain after a three year exile in Paris.

Mr. David Shayler (34), a disgruntled former officer in MI 5, the British internal security service, rocked the intelligence world with a series of disclosures about the British intelligence services. Besides allegations of bungling and mismanagement within the services, Mr. Shayler also said that MI 6, the external intelligence agency, had helped fund a failed assassination attempt against Col Gadhafi.

The British Government infuriated by these revelations tried for his extradition from Paris, but failed after a French court ruled that he could not be forced to return to Britain. The former spy has been attempting to return home for some time, and is now apparently confident of being able to win a legal battle against the Government.

Mr. Shayler joined MI 5 in 1994, and left three years later. His supporters say that he quit because of his unhappiness with the inefficiency and ineptitude he found. He took his concerns about the state of the intelligence services to the Mail on Sunday newspaper which published details of M1 5 surveillance operations on prominent figures including present British government ministers.

As the Government and his furious former colleagues attempted to take action against him, Mr. Shayler moved first to the Netherlands, and then to France. He was jailed briefly in France but later released after a French judge ruled that he could not be extradited because he might face ``political persecution'' if he returned to Britain.

Mr. Shayler is likely to face arrest when he returns to Britain tomorrow, but the chances of a successful prosecution are thought to be dim. The Government will try and prosecute the former spy under the Official Secrets Act. But the new European legislation which will be incorporated into British law early in October, will allow him to argue that this violates his fundamental rights. The security services are also unlikely to want a trial which would allow him the opportunity to bring fresh intelligence material before the public.

The courts also dealt a blow to the Government recently by ruling that the Guardian newspaper could not be forced to hand over to the security services documents relating to Mr. Shayler. In a significant judgment, Lord Justice Igor Judge, ruled that the press had a right to investigate and report matters of public interest.

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Section  : International
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