\n<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s evidence in the China espionage trial was missing a \u201ccritical element\u201d that meant there was \u201cno other option\u201d but to collapse the case, prosecutors insisted on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, did not directly blame anyone for the collapse of the trial but said the government\u2019s refusal to describe China as a national security threat meant \u201call routes were closed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Matthew Collins, the senior civil servant who drafted the government\u2019s evidence, said he could not meet prosecutors\u2019 demands because the Conservative government at that time \u201cdid not go so far as to label China a threat in the generic sense\u201d.<\/p>\n
He insisted that the three statements he provided detailed the \u201crange of threats\u201d that China poses to the UK\u2019s economy, cyber infrastructure and democratic institutions and that he was \u201csurprised\u201d and \u201cdisappointed\u201d that the case had collapsed.<\/p>\n
Parkinson and Collins were among the senior figures giving evidence to a joint committee on the national security strategy amid the extraordinary fallout over the decision to pull charges against two British men accused of spying for China.<\/p>\n
Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a teacher, both denied the charges under the Official Secrets Act.<\/p>\n
The collapse of the trial last month triggered a prolonged blame game between the government and prosecutors about who bears responsibility. Parkinson and Tom Little, the prosecutor in charge of the case, said the evidence given by Collins was behind the decision, while Collins said he was surprised that prosecutors had decided to pull the charges.<\/p>\n
Collins admitted that before the case collapsed, it was made clear to him by prosecutors that \u201cthey were looking for a precise formulation of words\u201d in his statement, but insisted he could only give evidence on the basis of Tory government policy between 2021 and 2023.<\/p>\n
However, he said he would have detailed the range of threats posed by China under cross-examination. \u201cThe way I would have answered the question under cross-examination would have been to go through all of the areas where I have specified in my witness statements \u2026 the range of threats that we see from China,\u201d Collins told the committee.<\/p>\n
He said he included language in his final witness statement reflecting the Labour government\u2019s policy on the request of counter-terrorism police, and that he drew the relevant line from a minister\u2019s answer to a parliamentary question. Collins said no political pressure had been placed on him to reflect Labour\u2019s position and that he had never discussed the details of the case with Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser.<\/p>\n
Parkinson said the insertion of that line, which mirrors language used to describe China in the Labour manifesto, did not contribute to the decision to pull charges. He stressed that it was what was missing from Collins\u2019s evidence, rather than what it contained, that led to the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, the issue in this case is that we were not able to provide the evidence to sustain the case in respect of one essential element, which was the element that China was an enemy, as was required by the statute,\u201d Parkinson told the committee.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he ever had \u201cthe feeling that the government wanted this case to fail\u201d, Parkinson said: \u201cNothing reached me.\u201d The DPP told peers and MPs that no \u201creasonable jury\u201d could have been properly directed to conclude China was a threat to the UK\u2019s national security.<\/p>\n
MPs have questioned why prosecutors did not continue with the case and allow a jury to make a decision based on the charges. Parkinson and Little argued that because of Collins\u2019s evidence, lawyers for the defence could have made a submission there was \u201cno case to answer\u201d, meaning the case would never have reached a jury.<\/p>\n
Collins said the first time he became aware the trial could collapse was at a meeting with prosecutors on 3 September. Little said he had articulated prosecutors\u2019 concerns about his evidence at a meeting on 14 August.<\/p>\n
Asked to compare the Labour government\u2019s policy towards China and the approach the Conservatives had pursued, Collins said there were no major differences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are differences in points of emphasis,\u201d he told the committee. \u201cThere are definitely differences in the language that is used. The Labour government at the moment has been quite clearly wanting to ensure that it engages with China. However, the previous Conservative government also wanted to engage with China.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The government\u2019s evidence in the China espionage trial was missing a \u201ccritical element\u201d that meant there was \u201cno other option\u201d but to collapse the case, prosecutors insisted on Monday night. Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, did not directly blame anyone for the collapse of the trial but said the government\u2019s refusal to describe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[5669,2153,2345,1387,18080,16237,100,3766,6723,2131],"class_list":{"0":"post-30928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-caused","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-collapse","11":"tag-critical","12":"tag-element","13":"tag-espionage","14":"tag-missing","15":"tag-prosecutors","16":"tag-spying","17":"tag-trial"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}