Licence to kill could go due to ‘Sopranos’ mentality
SPIES and undercover agents could be stripped of a licence to kill under crossparty amendments before Parliament today, as the Government was accused of a “Sopranos mentality.”
The cross-party alliance, including Tory and Labour members, says the Government’s proposed new law giving immunity to undercover agents who commit crimes should explicitly exclude serious offences such as murder.
It will return to the Commons today when the alliance, including David Davis, the former Cabinet minister, will lay amendments stating that agents cannot cause “i ntentionally or by criminal negligence, death or bodily harm to an individual”.
The amendments would also bar agents from torture or “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, violating the “sexual integrity of an individual”, kidnapping or detaining an individual or causing serious damage to a property where it “would endanger the safety of an individual”.
They have also been backed by Liberal Democrat members and human
‘Who could object to excluding these heinous acts? Well, unfortunately our Government could’
ri ghts campaign groups such as Reprieve. The proposed new law does not specify what crimes are covered, but they have to be “proportionate and necessary” and comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.
This avoids creating a “checklist” that criminals could use to test a suspected undercover agent in order to try to flush them out. Mr Davis, a former shadow home secretary, said the “checklist” claim was “a joke”, that demonstrated a “Sopranos mentality”, that criminals needed a checklist to know that an undercover officer would not kill to order. He added: “The bill gives the state a right to eliminate the law for its own ends.” He said the Government had only introduced the proposed new law because it feared losing a supreme court case over the legality of the current guidelines which permit covert sources to break the law.
A coalition of human rights groups is currently appealing a court ruling that narrowly authorised such activity.
Ken Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions, said the Government was in danger of missing an opportunity to set limits, as Canada had done with recent legislation stipulating that murder, torture and sexual violence would never be sanctioned by the state.
“Who could object to excluding these heinous acts? Well unfortunately our Government could, claiming that to list exempted offences would provide criminals with a litmus test for unmasking infiltrators,” he said. “Ministers should peel their eyes away from The Sopranos and acknowledge public confidence in official law-breaking is a fragile thing that requires the reassurances of boundaries.”