The appeals court in Paris yesterday turned down Britain's request for the extradition of a former MI5 agent, Mr David Shayler, who is wanted for disclosing government intelligence, and ordered his release from jail.
Ruling on Britain's extradition request, the court issued an "unfavourable opinion" and ordered Mr Shayler's release from jail. He walked free from the Sante prison in Paris late in the afternoon.
The court said it was opposed to his extradition because the charges laid against him were "political under French law", meaning his extradition would be contrary to the European convention on extradition and contrary to a French law of 1927 defining conditions of extradition.
The British Home Office said it had not yet decided whether to appeal against the French court decision.
Mr Shayler (32) fled to Paris in August last year after claiming that MI5, Britain's internal security agency, held files on more than 500,000 British subjects, including at least two ministers in the present government. Britain wanted him to be placed on trial under the Official Secrets Act for disclosing details about British intelligence operations.
Mr Shayler, who worked for MI5 from November 11th, 1991, to October 4th, 1996, was detained last August 1st following the issuing of a British arrest warrant. The Paris prosecutor's office last month backed the extradition request and asked the appeals court to issue an authorisation.
The British authorities, after attempting to entice Mr Shayler back to London with promises of immunity from prosecution, took action against him after he threatened to publish further damaging allegations on the Internet.
Among these was the claim that British agents had attempted to have the Libyan leader, Col Gadafy, assassinated. The Paris arrest proved a publicity disaster for the British government, reminiscent of the attempt in May 1987 to prevent a former MI5 officer, Mr Peter Wright, from publishing his Spycatcher memoirs.
In the flurry of coverage of Mr Shayler's arrest, details of the alleged Gadafy plot emerged, notably his claim that MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence agency, paid an exiled Libyan who had links to a militant Islamic group to assassinate the Libyan leader. By Mr Shayler's account, published in the New York Times, a bomb plot against Col Gadafy in February 1996 failed when the device exploded under the wrong car, killing several bystanders.