TAXPAYERS' CASH WAS USED TO KILL CIVILIANS - SHAYLER
by Fiona White

Former MI5 agent Guernsey woman Annie Machon had to shed the culture of secrecy she worked under to face the media to raise awareness of Mr Shayler's plight. (Picture by Geoff Brehaut)

 During the 90-minute hearing Shayler's lawyers condemned Britain's Official Secrets Act, which effectively gags intelligence officers even after they have left the service.
The 32-year-old former spy is wanted in the UK to face charges under the act following his revelations about MI5 activities - and alleged incompetence - in the Mail on Sunday last year.
'I simply wanted to say that taxpayers' money had been used to kill innocent civilians,' Shayler said.
Shayler was arrested in Paris on 1 August as he was planning to reveal details of what he says was an MI6 plot to assassinate Libya's Colonel Gaddafi - an allegation supported by Gaddafi.
At the start of the hearing the president of the three-judge court, Madame Ponroy, said that the question which had to be answered was whether the actions for which Shayler was wanted to stand trial in Britain amounted to 'political' offences.
If so, she said, Shayler could not be extradited under current French law.
Shayler, who declined the assistance of a translator in court, listened intently as the French public prosecutor argued in favour of Britain's extradition request.
He said that what the ex-MI5 man had done was 'clearly not political'.
He claimed that Shayler's motive was money, as he was paid thousands of pounds by a newspaper for his revelations.
Shayler admitted that he received #20,000 and said he had taken the money because he knew that he would be pursued after the facts emerged and would need cash to support himself.
Shayler added that he knew he would face immediate arrest in Britain once the facts emerged and he would be unable to write anything else.
'I would have to leave the country for some months and that is why I took the money. But I did try to give it back to the Government along with the MI5 documents as part of the negotiations.'
The court heard that Britain's Special Branch recovered 76 documents from the Mail on Sunday when it started investigating who was behind the revelations - 30 of them were marked 'top secret'.
Shayler's lawyer, William Bourdon, told the hearing that Shayler's actions in exposing the workings of MI5 was 'manifestly political'.
He added that the Official Secrets Act was 'incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights'.
'The act is so wide in its scope it allows full control to the state. It falls well below the democratic standards and traditions of the UK.'
The French Government has signed a new EU Convention which ends the notion of 'political' crimes in Europe. But crucially, France has not yet ratified the accord and, as the president of the judges explained, it therefore does not yet apply.
The public prosecutor said he would like to see an end to the whole extradition process within the EU, but the courts had to deal with the law as it stood.
The judges will deliver their verdict in the same court on November 18.
After the hearing Shayler's British lawyer John Wadham, director of the rights group Liberty, said he believed that the judges had been convinced by the courtroom arguments that the extradition application had been politically motivated by the British Government.

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