By Gordon Thomas
Sunday, March 11, 2007
The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, has used a gagging order against former MI6 agent, Richard Tomlinson, to stop him from giving evidence by video link to the Diana inquest.
It is the second time in the past ten days Lord Goldsmith has become involved in a gagging order controversy.
Like his attempt to silence the BBC over its report on the cash-for-honours scandal, the order against Tomlinson is also surrounded by secrecy.
A surprised senior lawyer at the French bar, maitre Clotele Normand, who is acting for the government to enforce the gagging order because Tomlinson now lives near Nice, said:
"I am astonished you have learned of this. I am not authorised to answer your questions on the matter. I cannot discuss how English law can be enforced in France against Mr Tomlinson. My instructions are that nothing can be publicly said on this matter", said the lawyer in Paris.
Tomlinson's own lawyer, Yves Rousarie, says the gagging order raised "disturbing questions".
Before Clotele Normand was instructed by Treasury solicitors in London, Special Scotland Yard Branch officers had raided Tomlinson's apartment in France.
"They took away my computers and all my legal documents, which would have enabled me to fight the gagging order", said Tomlinson.
The order against the spy was originally granted by Mr Justice Parkes in the High Court in London in 2001. The order was granted on the grounds that the former spy had contravened the Official Secrets Act by revealing details about his work.
By then the former spy had fled to France where he has remained. The order was not legally pursued at the time in France.
Last week Tomlinson said he was prepared to give evidence to the Diana inquest by video link.
"I would have focussed on the time when I was at MI6 and I saw a secret document describing in detail how to make an assassination appear like a car accident. The document had a 'yellow mark' category which means it could only be seen at the highest level. The document specifically referred to an MI6 plan to assassinate Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian president, by blinding his driver with a bright flash in a tunnel. The plan was exactly the same one used to create the fatal crash of Diana and Dodi", Tomlinson said in his exclusive interview.
Tomlinson believes his evidence could be a "smoking gun" at the Diana inquest.
He has made his claim before about the MI6 document -- and it has been totally dismissed by the Stevens Report on the deaths of Diana and Dodi.
But now his lawyer believes there must be "real substance in my claims otherwise Lord Goldsmith would not be implementing the gagging order against me.
"Lord Goldsmith has made it clear he wants the gagging order to be in place in France as soon as possible.
"It is virtually impossible for my lawyer to fight the gagging order because all my legal documents were removed by the Special Branch officers. Repeated attempts to retrieve them by my lawyer have been ignored by Scotland Yard.
"My only hope now is to speak out and hope public opinion will be aroused, just as it has been over the gagging of the BBC.
"Unlike the BBC, I am not in a financial position to fight the Attorney General and the government. I have used up pretty well all my savings", said Tomlinson.
His lawyer is now exploring "how to get the gagging order raised at the European Human Rights court in Strasbourg.
"But that could take many months and by then the Diana inquest would be long over. The one question I want answered is: what is MI6 afraid of in having their role forensically examined in the full public spotlight?" Tomlinson concluded.
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