Liberty is delighted that the Government has decided to drop the case against Katharine.

We took her case on because we were appalled that a whistleblower who acted in good conscience should be threatened with imprisonment for exposing that our government had been asked by the US to act unlawfully and to undermine the deliberations of the UN Security Council.

It is worth pointing out that we don’t know whether the American request was ever acted upon.

What this case shows is that the Official Secrets Act must be reformed so that people like Katharine who expose serious wrongdoing on the part of the security services do not face prosecution.

Background
Katharine was facing trial at the Old Bailey, charged under the Official Secrets Act with disclosing secret Government information.

Katharine used to work as a translator at GCHQ, the Government’s eavesdropping centre. In the weeks leading up to the Iraq War, at a time when the UN was still considering whether to pass a second resolution authorising war, she disclosed that the American National Security Agency had asked the British Government to help in the illegal surveillance of the six delegations holding the balance of power in the UN Security Council.

Katharine made the disclosure because she believed that it was necessary to prevent an illegal war in which thousands of Iraqi citizens and British and American soldiers would die or be maimed. She did what she thought was right.

Liberty has long said that the Official Secrets Act is too draconian and that there should be a public interest defence that would protect whistleblowers.

Liberty called on the Government to do two things:

1. Drop Katharine’s prosecution

2. Reform the Official Secrets Act