Police officer says he was forced into bugging Muslim MP
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Mark Kermey, an intelligence officer at the Woodhill prison where the bug
was placed in a
table, said he was put under "significant pressure" by the Metropolitan
Police to carry out the
electronic eavesdropping on Ahmed, who was facing exradition on terrorism
charges, during a
social visit by the MP for Tooting, Mr Khan.
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the disclosure raised some
serious questions. "It
suggests it goes wider than one police officer," said Mr Davis. The matter
is certain to
increase calls for a tightening of the surveillance rules.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw who has announced a two-week inquiry by Sir
Christopher Rose, the
Chief Surveillance Commissioner, said no minister had authorised the
bugging of Mr Khan's
private conversations at HMP Woodhill, near Milton Keynes, in May 2005 and
June 2006.
MPs are worried that the claims, if true,contravene the doctrine adopted
by former Prime
Minister Harold Wilson that no MPs should be bugged, unless it is a matter
of national security.
It is understood that the police officer, who is under investigation on
another matter,
authorised the eavesdropping, but had targeted Babar Ahmed, rather than
the MP.
However, there were claims last night that the MP – who is a former
chairman of the civil
rights group Liberty – may have been monitored for years. There were also
further re****ts of
bugging within prisons.
Mr Straw confirmed that a chief officer of police could have authorised
the eavesdropping
operation under the existing rules. Under the 2000 Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act, he
said eavesdropping can be authorised by a police chief without the
permission of a minister if
it takes place inside a prison. However, as he explained to MPs, normally
a Secretary of State
has to give authorisation for bugging suspects – the Home Secretary for
bugging by the police,
MI5 and Special Branch or the Foreign Secretary for bugging by MI6 and
GCHQ.
Last night Imran Khan, a lawyer who has defended many suspects alleged to
be involved in
terrorism, wrote to Mr Straw calling for the Rose inquiry to be widened to
find out whether
solicitors' conversations with clients are routinely bugged. "In Belmarsh
and Woodhill inmates
feel these conversations are being monitored and what has happened in my
career recently
indicates that might be the case."
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "Whatever happens this time
– it's high time for
simpler and stronger surveillance laws with warrants issued by judges, not
policemen."
Scotland Yard said it refused to "discuss matters of national security."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/police-officer-says-he-was-forced-into-bugging-muslim-mp-778024.html
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