The 150 other criminals striking deals
MORE than 150 criminals have struck deals with prosecutors in return for shorter sentences or immunity from prosecution.
As questions over the secret deal given to convicted terrorist Saajid Badat mounted last night, prosecutors refused to say whether there are other deals involving terrorists or terror suspects.
The Crown Prosecution Service refused to give further details about any of the agreements entered into. A spokesman even refused to say whether or not secrecy orders were imposed when the deals were agreed.
Official figures reveal the existence of at least 158 deals between prosecutors and informants. In seven cases, criminals were given complete immunity as a result of their evidence and in 11 cases partial immunity.
A further 26 prisoners went back to prosecutors with information and had sentences cut – in similar deals to that secured by Badat. In 114 cases, offenders pleaded guilty and had their sentences reduced. The figures cover the period between the super grass law – the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act – coming into force in 2006 and July last year.
Tory MP David Davis, who obtained the figures, said secrecy should always be kept to a minimum.
He said: ‘The simple truth is that secrecy should be minimal, or the least that is reasonable while protecting the life and limb of witnesses.
‘If a case like this [Badat] is undertaken where there is clearly little or no secrecy about either identity or action then it is incumbent on the CPS in the interests of open justice to make this public.
‘It is only where there is a potential threat to life that the CPS should withhold details about these cases. That is how open justice works in a democracy.’ The CPS claimed secrecy is sometimes justifiable as informants could be at risk from attack by the criminals they are helping to convict.
It also defended the Badat deal, and insisted it was ‘only ever intended to be a temporary measure’.
On Monday it emerged Badat had his sentenced slashed both at trial and then by a further two years after he agreed to give evidence against his Al Qaeda bosses.
The agreement between him and prosecutors was signed in secret and approved during an extraordinary private court hearing in November 2009.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice were allowed into the courtroom at the Old Bailey to hear the ruling, but members of the British press and the public were barred.
After his sentence was cut, Badat was fasttracked through the parole board process and released in March 2010. He is now under expensive police protection. A CPS spokesman said: ‘It would be inappropriate to discuss publicly detail of SOCPA agreements as there are very real risks to the safety of some of those who have signed the agreements to provide intelligence or evidence against their allegedly criminal acquaintances.
‘Therefore, the CPS will provide updated figures each year on the agreements, in a way that we are satisfied does not put any individual at risk of harm.
‘The Section 75 order in the case of Saajid Badat was only ever intended to be a temporary measure, and it was specifically lifted so that he could give evidence in a U.S. trial, and also enabling us to make the details public. This was done at the order of the court.
Section 75 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act allows judges to make ‘whatever reporting restrictions are necessary’ to keep the deal secret – and judges have blanket powers to hold cases in camera if not doing so would ‘frustrate or render impracticable the administration of justice’.