Spy case collapse blamed on failure to label China a threat

[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nn1 hour agoShareSaveJack FenwickPolitical correspondentShareSaveAFP/Getty ImagesA case involving two men accused of spying for China collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat, the UK’s most senior prosecutor has said. Charges against Christopher Cash, 30, and Christopher Berry, 33 – who both deny the allegations – were dropped by prosecutors last month prompting criticism from ministers and MPs.In a rare intervention, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson said the Crown Prosecution Service tried to obtain further evidence from the government “over many months” but witness statements did not meet the threshold to prosecute.Sir Keir Starmer said the government could only draw on the previous government’s assessment which dubbed China an “epoch-defining challenge”.Mr Parkinson said while there was sufficient evidence to prosecute at the time charges were brought in April 2024, a precedent set by another spying case earlier this year had then raised the threshold needed to convict people under the Official Secrets Act.China would have needed to have been labelled a “threat to national security” at the time of the alleged offences by Mr Cash and Mr Berry, he said.The government has always maintained it is “frustrated” the trial collapsed and Mr Parkinson’s intervention comes after weeks of speculation about why the prosecution could not continue.Sir Keir said that the government’s description of China could not change retrospectively and had to be based on “the position of the last government”.Mr Berry, a teacher from Witney in Oxfordshire, and Mr Cash, a parliamentary researcher from Whitechapel in London, were arrested in March 2023 as part of an investigation that involved counter-terror police.They were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.Under the Official Secrets Act, anyone accused of spying can only be prosecuted if the information they passed on was useful to an enemy.Mr Parkinson said in a letter last month that “the case could no longer proceed to trial since the evidence no longer met the evidential test”, adding that he could not go into the reasons why.In his latest letter, sent to MPs, he said he was taking the “unusual” step of sharing more details because “government briefings have been provided commenting on the evidential situation”.The need to describe China as a threat to national security in order to prosecute emerged during a separate spying case earlier this year of six Bulgarian nationals who had been spying for Russia. They were found guilty under the Official Secrets Act.The act says that a person is guilty of espionage if they act in a manner “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state” and passed on information that might be “directly or indirectly useful to an enemy”.Mr Parkinson said this case of the Bulgarian nationals clarified that an enemy under the terms of the Official Secrets Act “includes a country which represents at the time of the offence, a threat to the national security of the UK”.This meant “further evidence should be obtained” from the government in order to proceed with the prosecution but he added that the evidence was not “forthcoming”.”Efforts to obtain that evidence were made over many months, but notwithstanding the fact that further witness statements were provided, none of these stated that at the time of the offence China represented a threat to national security,” he said.Former chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee and former attorney general Dominic Grieve told BBC Radio 4’s Today p …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]