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The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Jeremy Hanley): I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.
Mr. Paul Grecian
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Hanley.]
9.21 pm
Mrs. Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley): In October 1990, Paul Grecian and colleagues from his firm Ordtec were arrested on the charge of illegally exporting arms to Iraq. He was immediately granted bail and proceeded to fight his case. In February 1992, the trial was heard at Reading Crown court, and during the proceedings it transpired that several vital Government documents that would have proved Government knowledge of the on-going trade with Iraq were withheld.
The prosecution viewed the documents, and falsely assured the judge that they were irrelevant. Public interest immunity certificates were signed and available for use if the judge refused to accept the assurances of lack of relevance. The evidence was suppressed, and Grecian and his colleagues had no option but to plead guilty. They were given suspended sentences.
During the court proceedings, it was revealed that Grecian, voluntarily and without reward, had been supplying vital information to MI5 and MI6 for several years--evidence that clearly illustrated the Government's knowledge of trade with Iraq, as they were aware of nearly every shipment made to the middle east. In fact, knowledge of the supergun was first passed to the Government by Grecian as early as 1989.
In February 1992, after the trial, Grecian began proceedings for an appeal. The high-profile Matrix Churchill case, almost identical to the Ordtec case, highlighted the unique position that Grecian had been forced to accept, because important and revealing documents were withheld by the Government.
On 16 June 1994, Grecian was asked by a New Jersey prosecutor to provide evidence for an American lawsuit against the United States company Rexon, against which similar charges of selling arms to Iraq had been levied. Grecian provided evidence to the prosecutor in London--evidence that was witnessed by his legal representative, by a lawyer for Rexon, and by Donald Davidson, assistant prosecutor of the state of New Jersey.
That evidence destroyed Davidson's case against the company, and as a result of Grecian's evidence the proceedings against Rexon executives were dropped, and the company pleaded guilty to a technical offence. Although the state charges against Rexon were dropped, those raised in the United States against Grecian were not.
In January 1995, Grecian visited his girlfriend in South Africa. It was during that visit that his solicitor in the United Kingdom told him that he was wanted by Interpol. Her Majesty's Customs in the United Kingdom later revealed that the United States Justice Department had issued a red-notice extradition order. Normally, those against whom extradition orders are raised are advised of their situation, and offered the opportunity to take legal advice and dispute the charges on which such orders have been raised;a red-notice warrant, however, requires no such advice.
The warrant raised against Grecian was apparently active in 176 countries, including the United Kingdom--where, significantly, no attempt was made to execute it. A letter from the British consul general in Johannesburg, dated 8 February 1996, confirms that
In October 1995, the United Kingdom court appeal was held, and the Government finally released documents illustrating Ordtec's innocence. Further documents were released following the insistence of the Lord Chief Justice. The convictions of Grecian and his co-defendants were quashed, and they left the Court of Appeal free men. Although justice was finally done in the United Kingdom, however, we should reflect on the five-year period during which the four men were branded criminals, and therefore unable to pursue either substantial careers or a normal life style. That was because of a Government cover-up.
In the autumn of 1995, Grecian planned a further personal trip to South Africa. He had been given influential contacts in the South African police with whom he could check his freedom and safety to travel. Grecian raised the visit with three South African officials, including the local head of Interpol in South Africa, Colonel David Bruce. All of them gave him the go-ahead. He now believes that he was trapped into going to Johannesburg by South African officials.
As a final precaution before his journey, Grecian had two meetings with a Mr. Fuche of the South African high commission in London. Similar assurances were provided. Given those assurances, Grecian decided to travel to South Africa. On 14 December 1995, he left London for Capetown, on a journey that included a flight change at Johannesburg.
At Johannesburg, Grecian was arrested. The arrest was the result of an Interpol red notice--a document of which the British authorities had been aware, and had ignored for more than a year. The charges were breach of United States arms export control legislation and bank fraud. It is believed that the charge of bank fraud was made in an attempt to secure extradition on the other charges, which, being customs offences, were not extraditable.
On 18 December 1995, at the South African magistrates court at Kempton Park in Johannesburg, both Colonel Bruce and Mr. Fuche denied having any previous conversations with Grecian. It was also revealed that Colonel Bruce was the executive director of Interpol South Africa, and that Mr. Fuche was a detective superintendent in the South African police.
The charge of bank fraud had been raised on the basis of a letter of credit issued by Bank Mellon, regarding funds for the shipment of fuse parts from the United States to the United Kingdom on behalf of Grecian's previous company, Ordtec. The letter was written by the bank, and the wording was prepared by its staff, under no influence of Grecian or his former colleagues. In fact, the goods were never shipped. Given those two points, the relevance of the letter to a charge of bank fraud is nebulous.
Despite the flimsy status of the charges, Grecian was not granted bail on that occasion for a number of reasons: he was an habitual fugitive from justice; he had
substantial hidden financial resources; and British secret services would smuggle him out of South Africa or provide him with a second passport.
An appeal was set for three days later, a period during which Grecian's family gathered various documents as evidence in his favour. The documents included his diary, which included entries of the meetings held with Mr. Fuche in London, and British Telecom bills, which itemised telephone calls made to Mr. Wright and to Mr. Bruce in South Africa.
Information was gathered to counter the reasons that were given against bail. There was proof that Grecian had been required to report weekly to the UK police during a two-year period in which he was under investigation for the original arms to Iraq charges, and proof that he had no access to a passport, clearly showing that he was not a habitual fugitive of justice. There was evidence detailing Grecian's bankruptcy and his reliance for income on social security in London, almost from the date of his arrest until very recently.
On 21 December 1995, a second appeal was held in Kempton Park magistrates court. Evidence proving previous contact with Mr. Fuche and Mr. Bruce was presented, and they reacted by amending their story to say that they had spoken with Grecian but had advised him not to travel.
Despite the evidence of Mr. Fuche and Mr. Bruce, the evidence submitted by his family against the charges of bank fraud and perjury and that presented against the reasons for refusing bail, the request for bail was again turned down at that hearing, but on a number of new grounds. First, he was a foreigner. Secondly, he had no fixed abode in South Africa. Thirdly, he would probably have had access to false passports. Fourthly, the magistrates could not believe that Grecian thought he was safe to travel, and believed that he must have known that he was travelling at risk. Fifthly, he was defended by a prominent Queen's counsel in his case in the UK, thereby demonstrating his access to substantial funds. The concept of legal aid was not even recognised by the South African magistrate. The final reason for refusing bail was that he possessed a fax machine, which was another clear sign of wealth.
Grecian appealed for bail to the Supreme Court of South Africa. Since he has been held in South Africa, he has been in court six times. On 4 January 1996, the appeal was heard at the Supreme Court, and a further request for bail was made. Bail was again denied, again for different reasons: Grecian had refused to go to the United States voluntarily; he had been acquitted in the UK on a technicality, so double jeopardy did not arise; in the past, the British high commission in South Africa had assisted those on bail to flee the country; and that, in this case, British intelligence would place a submarine off the South African shore to remove Grecian from their jurisdiction.
On 22 January, Grecian again appeared in the magistrates court. He again presented an application for bail and requested that all information regarding any possible extradition be provided to the defence. The magistrate dismissed all applications. In his solicitor's words, the magistrate was
In a letter from prison, dated 27 February, to the British high commissioner to South Africa, Paul Grecian wrote:
The application for extradition has now been postponed until 25 March. After a long adjournment, the magistrate returned to the court and made an order to the effect that the document requesting extradition was defective but that it would be provisionally accepted and that Paul Grecian had to remain in custody. By provisionally accepting the document, the magistrate is in effect allowing the state an opportunity to rectify the defect, even though the application has already been brought based on the defective request.
Finally, I deal with the view of Grecian's defence counsel during his appeal in the UK last year. I have a note from Geoffrey Robertson QC, which says:
He says that, as soon as his present trial commitments are over, he hopes to be in a position to take up Paul Grecian's case in the international media.
I have asked the South African high commission to look again at this matter. Clearly, something is very wrong. Paul Grecian is a British citizen. As everyone knows, the British Government refused to produce documents which would have supported his defence in 1992. They were not prepared to show that he risked his life gathering intelligence about Iraq and was the first agent to notify the authorities about the supergun.
I think that every hon. Member knows that for more than 13 years I have campaigned as chairperson of the Iraqi Opposition in Britain. I do not usually argue for people who trade in arms--in fact, I think it is a despicable trade--but I will argue for justice on behalf of anyone who has been shown injustice. In this case, it is time that the Government tried to make amends for the many years that Paul Grecian has lost and been branded as a criminal in a situation involving a Government cover-up.
"The United States authorities approached Interpol in London in June 1995 asking them to trace Paul which they did. Interpol told the US authorities to submit extradition papers. To date these papers have not been submitted."
"extremely hostile and refused to listen to all their arguments."
7 Mar 1996 : Column 547
"Whilst I am incarcerated in Modderbee it is impossible for me to provide the input required by my legal representatives . . . I am in no position to generate funds to pay for my legal team and face the prospect of losing the services of my lawyers here in South African in the very near future."
"I am informed that a US prosecutor named Davidson has asserted that the Court of Appeal decision in the Ordtec case in which Paul's plea of guilty was declared invalid and his conviction quashed does not give rise in law to any question of double jeopardy. This is utterly false and, to the extent that it may be affecting the English and South African proceedings, it must be stopped. The fact that the conviction has been quashed means that Paul Grecian can never be tried again for the 'Rexon' offence. Our law is clear to that effect . . . Paul's conviction was quashed on merit, because the documents suppressed by the Prosecution showed that he had a good defence. For this reason the Court of Appeal refused to order a retrial, and indeed the Prosecution did not even ask it to exercise its powers to do so. Personally, I think it is an outrage that the South African courts should bow to American pressure and hold Paul for extradition over a matter to which double jeopardy . . . plainly applies. I suspect that once the truth is investigated by the American courts they too will abandon the prosecution--after Paul has spent several years in jail."
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