MI5 given 'legal' authority to plan and commission crimes
In an unprecedented move undercover agents working for the British Security Service (MI5) and the police are to be given legal permission to commit crimes by way of maintaining their covers.
Under the legislation going before the House of Commons on Thursday (September 24), MI5, the police, the National Crime Agency and other agencies that employ undercover informants will be able to explicitly authorise them to commit crimes in order to progress a secret operation.
The decision to place MI5 criminality on a legal footing follows a major court ruling last year which found that the Security Service had an “implied” power to authorize crimes, even though those involved were not necessarily immune from prosecution.
That convoluted judgement – which only narrowly leaned toward the government’s position – prompted the decision to introduce fresh legislation.
The new law will require MI5 officers and agent handlers to demonstrate that the authorized crime is "necessary and proportionate".
However, the law will not specify which crimes can be committed thus prompting fears MI5 could potentially authorize the most extreme crimes, including murder and rape, to protect agent cover and progress secret operations.
Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, a legal and human rights campaign group that challenged the secrecy around the rules, made the following statement: "We are seriously concerned that the bill fails to expressly prohibit MI5 and other agencies from authorising crimes like torture, murder and sexual violence”.
Despite the extreme legal anomaly – creating legislation to enable criminality – the new law will merely be acknowledging what has been going on for decades.
In his landmark book “spy catcher” (1987), former dissident MI5 officer, Peter Wright, wrote that the Security Service had “bugged and burgled” its way across London in the 1950s in its relentless pursuit of Soviet spies.
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