Republican News · Thursday 29 May 2003

Scappaticci to launch legal challenge to NIO minister.

The man accused of being a British Army spy codenamed 'Stakeknife' is to take legal action against NIO security minister Jane Kennedy in Belfast's High Court.

Freddie Scappaticci is applying for a judicial review over Kennedy's refusal to confirm that he was not a British agent, but first he must obtain leave to proceed with the application, which Judge Kerr will hear in Belfast's High Court next week.

The Belfast man is seeking an order to compel the British minister to comment on his denial of the allegations made against him and that the refusal to comment is in breach of the right to life and respect for private and family life. These rights, he says, are enshrined in articles two and eight of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Scappaticci's lawyers will argue that the policy of refusing to comment on intelligence matters is too rigid and fails to give weight to the unique facts of the case. They will also submit that the minister's refusal amounted to a failure to protect his life and that she failed to give adequate weight to a threat to his life that would result from a rigid adherence to British government policy.