13 Jan 2008
The Observer
" ... The bundle of documents delivered to the Crown Prosecution Service by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 6 December last year should have
contained few nasty surprises. The files told the alarming story of Derek
Pasquill, a civil servant in a hitherto obscure new unit set up to improve
relations with the Islamic world, who had broken one of the golden rules of
a Crown servant.
Pasquill, 48, had handed over confidential documents to an Observer
journalist after becoming concerned about Foreign Office contacts with
Islamic groups and individuals who backed violence. Now he was facing trial
for six breaches of Section 3 of the 1989 Official Secrets Act that,
according to Mariot Leslie, the Foreign Office's director of defence and
intelligence, had seriously damaged UK interests abroad and endangered the
life of a colleague.
The CPS and Special Branch officers who put together the case at the behest
of the then Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, were convinced that the secrets
case against Pasquill was watertight.
They were wrong. Included among the documents being prepared for disclosure
to Pasquill's defence team was a bombshell. It was an email that should have
been handed to both the defence and the CPS many months before. ... "
~ Read on... ~
The Observer
" ... The bundle of documents delivered to the Crown Prosecution Service by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 6 December last year should have
contained few nasty surprises. The files told the alarming story of Derek
Pasquill, a civil servant in a hitherto obscure new unit set up to improve
relations with the Islamic world, who had broken one of the golden rules of
a Crown servant.
Pasquill, 48, had handed over confidential documents to an Observer
journalist after becoming concerned about Foreign Office contacts with
Islamic groups and individuals who backed violence. Now he was facing trial
for six breaches of Section 3 of the 1989 Official Secrets Act that,
according to Mariot Leslie, the Foreign Office's director of defence and
intelligence, had seriously damaged UK interests abroad and endangered the
life of a colleague.
The CPS and Special Branch officers who put together the case at the behest
of the then Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, were convinced that the secrets
case against Pasquill was watertight.
They were wrong. Included among the documents being prepared for disclosure
to Pasquill's defence team was a bombshell. It was an email that should have
been handed to both the defence and the CPS many months before. ... "
~ Read on... ~
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