24 February 2002
Related:
http://cryptome.org/tomlinson-ban.htm
http://cryptome.org/tomlinson-foia.htm
In case Richard Tomlinson's book on MI6, The Big Breach, is unavailable at www.thebigbreach.com, Cryptome offers the volume in PDF, Word and TXT formats, respectively, Zipped:
http://cryptome.org/bbpdf.zip (1.2MB)
http://cryptome.org/bbword.zip (1.6MB)
http://cryptome.org/bbtxt.zip (930KB)
Richard Tomlinson writes:
24 February 2002
Here are a few details of my various legal battles with MI6. Over the years, it has become clear that one of their tactics against me has been to attack me with writs and confiscations etc at every opportunity primarily to drain my resources by forcing me to employ lawyers to defend myself. Here is a brief timeline of their actions against me:
October 1997. Arrested and imprisoned in UK. I had to pay for my own defence. I decided I could not afford a long trial, so pleaded guilty. Imprisoned for 12 months (released on parole after six months).
August 1998. Arrested in Paris on entirely spurious grounds (MI6 told French authorities that I was a "terrorist") then released after 48 hours. French handed my computer and other belongings to British. I had to pay a lawyer to attempt their retrieval, but did not get them back for over a year.
August 1998. Got served an absurd injunction in New Zealand, banning me from talking to the press about ANYTHING. I had to engage a lawyer to fight that.
August 1998. Refused entry to Australia to visit my brother. I had to pay an Australian lawyer a great deal of money in an unuccesful attempt to find out the reasons for the visa refusal.
August 1998. Refused entry to USA. Still fighting for a visa.
December1998. Got served another all encompassing injunction in Switzerland. Had to get a lawyer to represent me, but then decided it would be cheaper just to leave Switzerland.
January 1999. Tried to go to France. Got arrested at the border and told to immediately leave France. This was totally illegal under European law, but nevertheless I had to engage another French lawyer to fight my case. Case dragged on for two years (and very expensive) before I took the law into my own hands and unilaterally moved to France.
September 1999. MI6 tried to serve injunctions on me in Germany. I managed to avoid getting served so for once did not need a lawyer.
May 2000. Italian police confiscated my computers at the request of MI6. I had to pay an Italian lawyer a lot of money in an abortive attempt to get them back. They were not returned to me until May 2001.
June 2000. MI6 sued me in the civil courts in the UK, claiming that they had copyright on my book "The Big Breach", and anything else I write. They successfully froze all proceeds from the book and newspaper serialisation rights. This is illegal, but nevertheless I have fight the case if I want to receive the proceeds from my book. MI6 know that they cannot win this case, but that is not their objective - they wanted to force me to pay for a lawyer to fight their lawyers (paid on an unlimited budget by the taxpayer). I knew that they would use every ruse they could to drag out the case so that I would have to spend a great deal of money. I therefore engaged a lay-lawyer (not formally qualified, but very knowledgeable about the law) to represent me on a pro-bono basis. It is legal under UK and European law to be self-represented, or represented by any appointee whatever their qualifications. But this infuriated MI6 and they have consistently pleaded in court that she is not allowed to represent me. The case has gone through three stages of appeal, and at each stage the judges have upheld MI6's argument (no doubt under a great deal of pressure from government). We have applied for the final stage of appeal to be heard in the House of Lords. This will certainly be rejected, which will mean that we will then have to go before the European Court of Justice.
I am also still fighting for access to an employment tribunal to adjudicate over the legality of my sacking in 1995. This has gone to Judicial review.
I have been forced to spend a great deal of money on lawyers over the years, and this is still an ongoing battle. If anybody would like to make a donation to my legal fees, it would be most welcome. This is best sent to my lawyer in Switzerland, who holds a central account for my legal fees:
Me. Dante Canonica
2 rue Francois Bellot
Geneva 1206
Switzerland
tel +41 (22) 3474747
fax +41 (22) 3464027
email: cbroido@cca.ch