Article "The Guardian"
Court told Document submitted to high court as part of case over secret justice reveals depth of relationship between British and Libyan spymasters.
Libyan spies intercepted MI6 chief's secret phone calls from in 2003.
Confidential phone
calls made from a post office by MI6’s counter-terrorism chief, Sir Mark Allen,
to London in 2003 were intercepted by Libyan spies, according documents
submitted to the high court.
On another
occasion claims by a well-placed informant that the former British prime
minister, Tony Blair, would be assassinated on a visit to the north African
state were discussed by both countries’ intelligence agencies, the court has
been told.
Such
extraordinarily, detailed knowledge of the relationship between British and Libyan
spymasters – before Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown – make a nonsense of UK
government claims that the rendition compensation case brought by Abdel Hakim
Belhaj must be heard behind closed doors, his lawyers argued on Monday.
At the opening day
of a courtroom battle over secret justice, a 33-page witness statement from
Sapna Malik, a solicitor from the law firm Leigh Day representing Belhaj,
revealed fresh information from official files discovered in Tripoli after the
Gaddafi regime fell in 2011.
It was also
alleged that the government is preventing both Sir Mark Allen and the former
foreign secretary, Jack Straw,
from mounting personal defences to the compensation claims by threatening them
with prosecution.
Written arguments
by Ben Jaffey QC, on behalf of Belhaj, state: “The suggestion that Mr Straw and
Sir Mark Allen are unable to defend themselves outside of a closed material
procedure [secret hearing] is not understood. There is a suggestion that … HM
government has sought to prohibit [them] from producing meaningful defences by
virtue of the Officials Secrets Act.”
Belhaj and his
then pregnant wife, Fatima Boudchar, were abducted in 2004 from Malaysia in a
joint MI6/CIA operation and forcibly removed to the torture cells of Gaddafi’s
regime in Libya.
Previously unknown
details of British involvement with Gaddafi emerge in Malik’s statement
including reference to a visit by Allen to Libya in 2003. “Sir Mark made two
phone calls to a [Foreign Office] telephone number from a Libyan mobile
telephone and one call to the same number from a post office at Leptis Magna,
the Roman archaeological site east of Tripoli,” it said. “The Libyan
authorities appear to have intercepted the calls.”
The unnamed
informant close to the LIFG, who passed on information to MI6 and Libya’s
External Security Organisation (ESO) – facilitating the rendition continued in
communication with them up until at least 2006, offering to pass on material
about other Libyan dissidents.
The source
reported that the removal of Belhaj and another LIFG leader, Sami Al-Saadi, who
was also subject to an MI6/CIA rendition, had resulted in the rebel
organisation moving towards radical Islam.
Malik’s witness
statement continues: “The Libyan ESO were aware of the source’s prior
relationship with the UK security and intelligence services: when the source
claimed to have information about a planned assassination of the prime minister
[Tony Blair], ESO shared the information with the UK and ESO officials noted
that ‘we are still not revealing to him that he was dealing with you’.”
The Libyan spies
also cautioned their British counterparts about the credibility of the threat.
“ESO officials noted their scepticism about the intelligence the source was
providing on the supposed attack plan [in Tripoli],” the statement said.
Rory Phillips QC,
for the government, told the court on Monday that parts of the case needed to
be heard behind closed doors due to national security concerns.
Such was the need for secrecy, he said, that even he did not know some of
the arguments being advanced by other government lawyers to protect
confidentiality. At one stage, the media, public and lawyers for Belhaj had to
leave the courtroom for half an hour while part of the arguments in front of
the judge, Mr Justice Popplewell, were conducted behind closed doors.
A statement signed by the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and released to
the court said: “I have concluded … that it would not be possible to have fair
trial of these claims on the basis of the open material alone.”
He added: “Serious allegations have been made against [both Jack Straw and
Sir Mark Allen], which they and the government firmly contest. They both wish
to have a real opportunity to defend themselves but they know that as a matter
of law and fact they cannot do so unless there is a [secret hearing].”
Belhaj and his wife have offered to settle the compensation for a token
payment of £1 from each of the agencies and an unreserved apology. The court
has also been told that the government has neither in open nor in closed
materials, yet pleaded or offered a defence to the central allegations of
forcible rendition.
Before the hearing, Malik said: “In a case of this importance, and where so
much relevant evidence is already in our clients’ possession, it is vital that
they are able to participate in the trial of their claims as fully as possible
and not be shut out of the process.”
The hearing continues.
Original: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/10/libyan-spies-intercepted-mi6-chiefs-secret-phone-calls-in-2003-court-told#img-1
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