Iraq weapons informant 'thrown to the wolves'

Ordtech appeal: Court is told businessman on arms charges was denied access to secret papers showing he worked as a spy

A British businessman who risked his life to keep the Government informed about Iraqi arms deployment was abandoned to his fate when he was tried for the illegal export of military equipment, the Court of Appeal was told yesterday.

Geoffrey Robertson QC, told the court that the prosecution in the original trial had tried to paint his client, Paul Grecian, as a liar by withholding documents which showed he had given information to the security services about the Iraqi procurement network, including the first tip-offs about the so-called "supergun'' project. "They were so economical with the truth as to be positively parsimonious," said Mr Robertson.

At their trial at Reading Crown Court in 1992, Mr Grecian and three other businessmen were denied access to documents which they considered material to their defence. Recently, after a change of heart, they have been shown hundreds of intelligence reports which would have changed the way they handled their defence.

Two Government ministers, Kenneth Baker and Peter Lilley, signed public interest immunity certificates concerning the disclosure of material at the original trial. These were never considered by Judge Spence because he was assured by counsel for the prosecution, Andrew Collins, who is now a High Court judge, that there were no documents he had seen of relevance to the defence.

In July this year, the Court of Appeal considered material in respect of which public interest immunity certificates had been made by Douglas Hurd and Michael Howard.

Mr Grecian and Brian Mason, who both worked for Reading-based arms company Ordtech before the company collapsed as a result of the prosecution, received suspended sentences. Stuart Blackledge, who worked for Gerald Bull's Belgian- based Space Research Corporation - which was behind the supergun project - also received a suspended sentence. The fourth man, Colin Phillips, who worked for a shipping company, was fined.

The four were arrested in 1990 on charges of illegal supplying a fuse assembly line to Iraq via Jordan. Documents now available show Mr Grecian met with the security services regularly during 1989 and 1990 although at the original trial a Special Branch statement admitted to only two meetings.

Mr Grecian, who pleaded guilty at Reading, applied for minutes from his meetings with Mr Wilkinson and MI5 and MI6 but he was refused. "We say that it is on the cards that documents relating to the information given by Paul Grecian to Special Branch would have assisted his defence," said Mr Robertson.

Mr Robertson said yesterday that Mr Grecian had for 10 years been a reliable informer of illegal arms deals and had been fully open about his activities in Iraq. He said that had the documents been available at his trial, Mr Grecian's defence would have argued that he was encouraged by the security service officers to deal in artillery fuses because that provided him with the access they needed.

The appeal continues today.