MI5 Policy Allowing Informants to Commit Serious Crimes Ruled Lawful

MI5’s partially secret policy that allows agents and informants to participate in serious crimes is lawful, judges have ruled by a 3-2 majority. In a 56-page judgement, the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT), which hears legal complaints about the intelligence agencies, declared that the guidelines do not breach human rights or grant absolute immunity to those who commit offences such as murder or torture. But the judgement is the first time the IPT has delivered dissenting judgements, both of which in this case are highly critical of the statutory framework surrounding the handling of agents. Many of the key arguments turned on the exploitation of informants within the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries during Northern Ireland’s Troubles.

Opening the majority judgement, Lord Justice Singh, Lord Boyd and Sir Richard McLaughlin acknowledged: “This case raises one of the most profound issues which can face a democratic society governed by the rule of law.” Crucial details of the guidelines specifying whether there are limits on such criminal activity remain secret. Part of the IPT hearing was held behind closed doors when the media and lawyers for the claimants were excluded. The tribunal has also published a secret or “closed” version of its final judgement. Explaining that the third direction guidelines are still not published in full, the majority judgement states: “For the reasons which are set out in our closed judgement, there is no more of the text of the guidelines which can properly be put into the public domain.

Read more: Owen Bowcott, Guardian, https://is.gd/bQvVKe