Victory for whistleblowing

GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gunspoke today of her 12 months " nightmare" after walking free from the Old Bailey.

She was acquitted after the Crown offered no evidence on a charge under the Official Secrets Act.

Outside court Mrs Gun said: "I'm delighted that the charge against me has been dropped. This has been a very difficult 12 months for me, my friends and my family. It is a blessed relief that this nightmare is over.

"I feel I've acted with decency and honesty throughout this whole affair and I've absolutely no regrets about what I've done. I am so grateful to the many thousands of people who have written to me offering their support.

"All I would like to know now is why the decision to drop the case was made so suddenly and at the last minute."

Mrs Gun, a 29-year-old translator at the Government spy centre in Cheltenham, had been accused of an unauthorised leak to The Observer.

The newspaper published revelations that the United States was illegally bugging delegates on the United Nations Security Council in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.

The decision to drop the charge came after Mrs Gun's lawyers demanded the Crown disclose key diplomatic communications and the Attorney-General's advice to the Cabinet on the legality of the war.

A jury trial would also open up GCHQ to unwelcome publicity and reopen the debate over the strength of the intelligence which led to the war.

Mrs Gun has always said she acted out of conscience to try to prevent the deaths of Iraqi and British forces in an "illegal war".

She was arrested after a leak that the National Security Agency, America's GCHQ equivalent, was bugging the home and office telephones and emails of UN delegates. It had targeted the representatives of six "swing" votes on the Security Council - Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan - considering a US resolution supporting the war.

A memo from Frank Kosa, a senior NSA official, said information from the eavesdropping would be used against the key UN delegations.

Even though she was arrested in March, Mrs Gun was not charged until November. Today her counsel Ben Emmerson QC said: "Having been charged after such a long time she and the public are entitled to know what is going on."

But Crown counsel Mark Ellison would only say: "There is a duty on the Crown to continue to review the evidence available to it throughout the course of a case. It is not conceded that the decision to charge was misconceived. The defence was informed that no evidence would be offered very shortly after a decision was made."

The Recorder of London, Michael Hyam QC, formally entered a verdict of not guilty and decided he was not entitled to force the Crown into revealing a more detailed explanation of why the case was dropped.

Later, at a press conference in the headquarters of civil rights group Liberty Mrs Gun's solicitor James Welch said: "It's appalling that a whistleblower who acted in good consciousness should have been threatened with two years' imprisonment for exposing the fact that the US government asked our Government to do what is illegal.

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

"What this case shows is that the Official Secrets Act must be urgently and radically reformed. People like Katharine who highlight serious wrongdoing on the part of the security services must not face prosecution and the prospect of prison."

In a statement, a spokesman for The Observer said: "We are delighted that the charges against Katharine Gun have been dropped.

"The story we published exposed serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the US government. It was a story of enormous public interest which was followed up worldwide.

"In bringing this to the public's attention, Katharine Gun acted solely in the public interest. It was extraordinary that she was faced with the threat of imprisonment for acting on her conscience."

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell said: "The dropping of these charges will avoid severe Government embarrassment."

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "This is a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service. I have no comment to make on the case beyond what the CPS have said."