Confessions inquiry

Press, 3 December 1985, Page 10

Confessions inquiry

NZPA-PA London - The inquiry into how confessions of spying were extracted from eight British servicemen in Cyprus began in London yesterday. ;; A barrister, David Calcutta Q.C., a former chairman of the Bar, will begin examining assertions by the young soldiers and airmen from Nine Signals regiment that military police bullied them into signing statements saying that they had leaked secrets. All eight were acquitted at the Old Bailey after a four-month trial, mostly in

secret, which cost the taxpayer about £4.5 million ($11.74 million). The young servicemen were accused of taking part in homosexual orgies on the base where they worked collecting signals intelligence. A supposed K.G.B. officer then allegedly blackmailed them into passing over details of their work. But the men claimed pressure verging bn physical violence was used by members of the Royal Air Force’s Provost and Security Service and .the

Army’s Special Investigation Branch to make them confess. In court they denied spying or taking part in orgies. The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, announced the inquiry in the wake of their acquittal. At a preliminary hearing at Lancaster House last month, Mr Calcutt agreed to legal representation at the inquiry for the servicemen, as well as their commanding officers and the military police accused of ill-treating them.