AND HE’S LAYING DOWN THE LAW TO US!
Ex-PM whose secret service spied on his own citizens, the EU chief is now embroiled in criminal probe amid claims of wire tapping cover-up
EUROPEAN Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was branded ‘arrogant’ last night after he become embroiled in a criminal probe over wiretapping.
Judges are investigating an extraordinary spying operation in Luxembourg when he was prime minister there ten years ago.
Last night MPs expressed concern the scandal could disrupt the Brexit negotiations.
It has emerged that last week, on the day Mr Juncker met Theresa May for Brexit talks in Brussels, a Luxembourg judge opened a criminal inquiry into whether officials working for Mr Juncker had ‘tampered’ with evidence.
It is possible Mr Juncker himself could now be called as a witness.
His officials have flatly rejected claims of a cover-up and yesterday they blamed the furore on ‘Juncker-bashing’ over Brexit.
The criminal probe was launched by Luxembourg judge Eric Schammo, who will examine claims made by the principality’s former spy chief, Marco Mille, that someone in Mr Juncker’s office ‘falsified’ a transcript that is a key piece of evidence in a criminal case against Mr Mille.
Mr Mille is on trial accused of conducting an illegal phone-tapping surveillance operation in Luxembourg in 2007. He insists it was not illegal because Mr Juncker, then the tiny state’s PM, had authorised it. Mr Juncker denies doing so.
Mr Mille’s trial has been halted over claims that a transcript of a covertly-recorded discussion between Mr Juncker and Mr Mille was altered.
The former spymaster alleges someone in Mr Juncker’s office edited the transcript to leave out segments that allegedly show Mr Juncker did consent to the wiretap mission.
Mr Juncker has been called to give evidence as a witness in Mr Mille’s trial, but has so far turned down eight dates offered by the court.
In 2013, he resigned as Luxembourg prime minister over the spy scandal. When he was appointed European Commission president in 2014, some critics warned it would come back to haunt him.
Last night Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who backs Brexit, said: ‘Instead of focusing on a Brexit deal that benefits Britain and the EU, Juncker is going to be mired in a complex investigation into his time running Luxembourg when his secret agents were apparently running amok.
‘This will not help the Brexit negotiations, and it shows that maybe Juncker’s critics were right when they tried to stop him becoming EC president in 2014 by warning his past scandals would come back to haunt him.’
Conservative MEP David Campbell Bannerman warned it ‘could be a big distraction from the Brexit talks’.
Mr Juncker’s officials pointed out he was not on trial and was not being investigated, and insisted he was happy to appear as a witness in the case as long as it did not conflict with his Commission commitments.
One said: ‘As a result of the successful conclusion of the Article 50 phase 1 negotiations and president Juncker’s decisive role in bringing this about, a new wave of “Juncker-bashing” may seem an appealing option to the traditional anti-Brussels lobby.’
But Frank Schneider, a former spy chief who is one of the defendants in the case, criticised Mr Juncker for not attending court, adding: ‘The arrogance to not turn up is unacceptable.
‘He had eight different dates, I’m sure he could have found the hours.
‘It leads me to believe that Juncker would have found himself in a very uncomfortable situation in court where he would have been cross-examined and we would have presented him with the altered transcript.’ Here, the Mail pieces together the story so far:
THE SEEDS OF HIS DOWNFALL
THE beginning of the end for Mr Juncker as PM came in 2006 when Luxembourg’s spy agency, the SREL, learnt of claims about a conversation he had with Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg. The agency is said to have wanted to check out the claims, which were made by informer Loris Mariotto, who allegedly came forward to tell spies he had a recording of Mr Juncker speaking with the Grand Duke.
Their conversation is said to be about the Grand Duke’s brother, Prince Jean, and whether he had been at Luxembourg airport shortly before it was bombed in 1985.
After hearing Mariotto’s claims, the spy agency began bugging his phone in 2007. Mille claims the operation was sanctioned by the PM. But Mr Juncker denies this. The bugging began on January 28, 2007, and lasted three days. It ended when Mr Mille and Mr Juncker held a discussion that Mr Mille secretly taped on a wristwatch recorder.
THE WRISTWATCH TRANSCRIPT
THE meeting on January 31, 2007, was covertly recorded by the spymaster on his wristwatch. A transcript reveals Mr Mille discussing the details of the surveillance on Mr Mariotto.
In it, Mille makes various comments on the bugging including: ‘I asked you... if we could tap somebody’s phone and you authorised it...so indeed we switched this on, we had that conversation with him. That conversation we had we recorded it on our mobile.’
He adds: ‘We realised we had kept it going for a weekend but there is nothing in it and we realised there some security company on the line... so we swtiched it off again, it has never happened.’ This recording later formed the basis for illegal wiretapping charges against Mille. But, crucially, Juncker barely features in the original transcript.
Two of his junior colleagues were also charged - Frank Schneider, former director of operations at the SREL, and agent André Kemmer.
Mr Schneider later said the operation to secretly record their own prime minister was ‘a stupidity that should never have happened’.
FORCED OUT OVER SPY PROBE
IN December 2012, amid concerns about abuses by Luxembourg’s spies, a parliamentary inquiry was launched and a copy of the wristwatch recording on a USB stick and a transcript was submitted.
It is alleged that this transcript was incomplete, missing remarks made by Juncker.
The parliamentary probe uncovered widespread abuses among Luxembourg spies. In July 2013, Juncker resigned as prime minister. The three intelligence chiefs accused of wiretapping Mariotto were referred to the prosecutor’s office and later charged.
NEW TRANSCRIPT IS DISCOVERED
THE spy trio were sent for trial. They denied the charges, saying the wiretap was approved by Mr Juncker.
But under oath in May 2015, he denied this, saying: ‘There was definitely no permission for a full phone-tapping operation.’
The trial was due to have finally started last month. But, in a huge twist, the three defendants discovered a different version of the transcript – containing Mr Juncker’s missing remarks – among thousands of files of prosecution documents given to the defence.
In this fuller version of the transcript, Mr Juncker reportedly says, ‘Mhm, mhm’, (interpreted as agreement) when Mr Mille tells him they have bugged a phone call ‘and you authorised it’.
Mr Juncker also says, ‘Yes, yes, yes’, as Mr Mille tells him details of the surveillance operation. At another point in their conversation, Mr Juncker is heard saying ‘…during the two days we were listening’. None of these remarks were included in the first transcript.
TRIAL HALTED AND NEW PROBE ORDERED
LAST month Mille declared he was not getting a fair trial. He issued a statement saying there had been a ‘scandalous manipulation of the most important document’.
He claimed the fuller transcript showed Juncker ‘fully understood that the intelligence service had carried out a full surveillance operation’ which he had ‘approved orally’. Mille added: ‘Who caused the falsification, we do not know. It is not insignificant in answering this question, however, [to ask] who benefits from this.’
On November 21, Mille lodged a counter-case, demanding that prosecutors investigate who ‘falsified’ the transcript. He also launched a civil action demanding compensation of €500,000 (£440,000) each.
The original wiretapping case was suspended. On December 4, another judge in Luxembourg granted Mille’s request and opened a criminal inquiry into the allegedly ‘falsified’ transcript.
It will examine whether officials working for Mr Juncker were involved in preparing the incomplete transcript, Mr Juncker’s officials stress that he is not under investigation and say he is available to appear as a witness.