Scientists’ deaths stir suspicions of espionage

Press, 27 April 1988, Page 25

Scientists’ deaths stir suspicions of espionage

By

HOWARD WITT

iNZPA-KRD London ! I In trench-coated London. where real-liie stories of spies and moles ahd dduble agents often rjvai the best fictkn. the Peculiar deaths o nine [British defence ; sc enlists in the last 20 months have Mirred suspicions that the cases might be connected ;a!nd that espionage? might be involved. ■ i Those who have studied itne deaths, among them jOpposition politicians. a Cambridge University icjounter-intelligence ispecialist and some investigative journalists, are llbath to draw any,definitive conclusions, because i the evidence, although intriguing. is scant. ■ | But they do believe that j the seemingly isolated i cases bear enough con- ? nections and similarities i to at least warrant? a Govi ernment investigation into whether some : terrorist group or foreign Government is involved. ? j The Conservative Government of the | Prime Minister. Mrs Thatcher, however, insists that the deaths, most of | them ap-

parent suicides, are mere coincidences, at best attributable to the unusually high stresses associated with secret defence research.

“The idea that they might have been bumped off by foreign agents is just straight out of James Bond." scoffed a Defence Ministry spokesman.

To be sure, the facts would seem to be the stuff of a spy novel. Five of the dead scientists worked at classified laboratories of the Marconi Electronics Company, a defence subsidiary' of General Electric Corporation that happens to be the subject of an ongoing fraud investigation into alleged overcharges on Government contracts.

While some of the deaths appeared to be suicides. circumstances surrounding others were decidedly bizarre. One Marconi computer scientist, Vimal Dajibhai. aged 24.' plunged to his death from a Bristol bridge in August, 1986. He was found with his pants lowered around his ankles and a tiny puncture

wound in his left buttock! The Bristol Coroner returned an open verdict in the case, and the puncture wound, according to a Coroner's spokesman, "was a mystery then and remains a mystery now." Another Marconi scientist. Ashad Sharif, aged 26, was found inside his car in October. 1986. He was nearly decapitated, with one end of a rope tied round a tree and the other end round his neck. The Coroner ruled the death a suicide, but "Computer News," a weekly London publication that first drew attention to the series of scientists' deaths, reported that a relative summoned to identify the body said he saw a long metal shaft lying on the floor of the car. near the accelerator pedal. The shaft, the relative said, could have been used to wedge down the accelerator.

A third Marconi scientist, Davrd"SanUs, aged 37. was killed in >4arch. 1987. w-hen his car containing two full petrol cans in the trunk slammed into the wall of a building. Sands' body was burned bevond

recognition, with identification made from dental records. The Coroner in the; case returned an open verdict, ruling that there was neither sufficient evi-’ dence of suicide nor of foul play. What has complicated the arguments of those who would dismiss the espionage theories as mere' fantasy is the fact that stranger things have actually happened in Britain.

Ten years ago. Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident who broadcast anticommunist programmes on the 8.8. C. World Service network, was murdered when an unknown assassin, presumed to be a j Bulgarian spy. jabbed him in the leg with an umbrella.

The umbrella carried a microscopic pellet laced with a deadly poison that killed Markov within a few days but left no trace in, his bloodstream. The pellet is on display at Scotland Yard’s famed black museum. The British have had a more recent reminder of the spies . among them

every Sunday recently, courtesy of the venerable "Sunday Times." The paper lias been carrying a serialised interview with Harold (Kim) Philby. the infamous Soviet K.G.B. double agent who managed to infiltrate the highest levels of Britain’s intelligence service 30 years ago and betray the entire Western alliance.

It is knowledge of such history’ that leads Randall Heather, a counter-intelli-gence researcher at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. to at least entertain the possibility that the Soviets are capable of a sophisticated' attack on Britain’s defence scientists.

"I restrain myself from engaging in conspiracy mania." said Mr Heather, "but it is possible that we are seeing a very quiet type of terrorism here, directed at very specific targets. It is possibly an attempt to intimidate the small group of scientists who work in these fields. "These are not normal types of accidents and suicides. These are not normal types of people who are dying."