David Shayler
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David_Shayler.jpg
David Shayler was a former member of the British Security Service (MI5) who was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act after passing documents to the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
In August 1997 he sent documents to the Mail on Sunday. He alleged that the Security Service was paranoid about socialists and that it had previously investigated Labour Party ministers Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw and Harriet Harman.
He fled to France and was arrested on 1 August 1998. After being denied legal aid to fight his extradiction case he won when French judges decided that exposing secrets was not grounds for extradition.
In August 2000 he voluntarily returned to the UK and was arrested. In November 2002 he was jailed for 6 months. He only served seven weeks in prison.
External links
- Guardian Special Report on the Shayler case (http://www.guardian.co.uk/shayler/0,2759,339663,00.html)
- Early Shayler timeline from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/216877.stm)
- Shayler's web site preserved on the memory hole (http://www.thememoryhole.org/spy/shayler/)
- A more critical view of Shayler from UK Indymedia (http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2002/03/24228.html)