Thread by @MarkWatts_1

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, #Spycop

Day 7 of opening statements today, including on behalf of Baroneess (Doreen) Lawrence, Neville Lawrence, Michael Mansfield.

Due to be live streamed at link.

Ahead of start of evidence sessions from tomorrow.

ucpi.org.uk/hearing/openin…

We start by hearing a broadside delivered at both #spycops inquiry and the Met delivered by Baroness Lawrence via her barrister, Imran Khan.

Baroness Lawrence, mother, of course, of Stephen Lawrence, “is losing confidence, if she has not already lost it, in the inquiry’s ability to get to the truth,” says Imran Khan to #spycops inquiry.

She is echoing the sentiments of Phillippa Kaufman on behalf of her clients yesterday (at link) and indeed many other non-state core participants previously.

https://twitter.com/MarkWatts_1/status/1325759983032602625

Imran Khan goes through the known facts of how the Met deployed #spycops to spy on the campaign for justice for Stephen Lawrence in order to find information to seek to discredit it.

You can view his opening statement being delivered here: ucpi.org.uk/hearing/openin…

Imran Khan explains how the revelation of Met’s deployment of undercover officers to spy on Stephen Lawrence campaign led Theresa May, as home secretary, to order public inquiry was needed into #spycops.

Worth noting that whatever criticism can be levelled at Theresa May, she defied the wider establishment by ordering inquiries re #VIPaedophiles, #DanielMorgan and #spycops.

Imran Khan reveals to #spycops inquiry that a file on several Met officers involved in early investigation into Stephen Lawrence’s murder has recently been referred to CPS to consider criminal charges against them.

Baroness Lawrence regards #spycops inquiry as, in reality, a secret inquiry, says Imran Khan.

(The parallels with Janner investigation of #CSAinquiry are striking.)

Heather Williams, representing Neville Lawrence, father, of course, of Stephen Lawrence, follows on and goes through the history of Met failures over Stephen’s murder.

And that is before we get to #spycops.

One #spycop even went to MacPherson inquiry, posing as an activist supporting the campaignfor justice for Stephen Lawrence, Heather Williams says in her opening statement to inquiry.

Ooh, a “technical issue” means that #spycop hearing is being paused for 10 minutes. Not obvious what problem was because the live feed was working.

Turns out that there are slight problems with link to Sir John Mitting, chairman of #spycops inquiry, (his screen was freezing a bit) but hearing is continuing.

Heather Williams is having to remind #spycops inquiry that the Lawrences were not terrorists. They were a family grieving the murder of Stephen.

Yet, #spycops sought “personal information” on the Lawrences and “tactical information as to where the campaign was going.”

Heather Williams says that #spycops who targeted the Lawrences were “looking for material with which to smear them.”

Heather Williams sets out how it is already known that #spycop “David Hagan” was a spy in the Lawrence camp during the judicial proceedings of the MacPherson inquiry, and, as she stresses, in the camp that was opposed to the Met in those proceedings.

Heather Williams tells #spycop inquiry that it is known that Met’s Special Branch asked GMP for intelligence on people attending a hearing of MacPherson inquiry in Manchester.

This #spycop inquiry should also investigate GMP’s role in undercover policing, she adds.

Neville Lawrence wants to know, says Heather Williams, why the Met “found it appropriate to spy on his family and relay so-called intelligence”, and how high did it go.

“How could undercover officers be deployed against a grieving family?”

One of many questions for the Met is, says Heather Williams, did #spycops deployed against the Lawrence family obtain legally privileged material, and if so, who received it?

Heather Williams protests on behalf of Neville Lawrence the inquiry’s refusal to disclose even all the cover names of #spycops involved in targeting the Lawrence family.

This makes it impossible for him to give a full account or for the inquiry to unearth the truth, she adds.

“Dr Lawrence has been failed so badly by the state over so many years,” says Heather Williams.

And he hopes that inquiry will not repeat this.

Ten-minute adjournment before we are due to hear from Imran Khan again, for Michael Mansfield, long-time barrister for Lawrences.

Re my earlier tweet on referral to CPS of several Met officers involved in early investigation into Stephen Lawrence.

The only previous report that I can find on this comes from a local newspaper in south London, and it deserved wider attention: newsshopper.co.uk/news/18843221.…

Michael Mansfield, represented by Imran Khan, urges #spycops inquiry to investigate extent of state surveillance of him and lawyers generally.

He accuses the state – esp Boris Johnson, Priti Patel and current government – of attacking independent legal professional & judiciary.

Andrew Trollope, for Azhar Khan, a solicitor advocate, follows at #spycops inquiry.

His client was the subject of a “long-running undercover police operation”, a “sting”, and was then “wrongly prosecuted” for a non-existant “conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”.

Andrew Trollope explains how, in a sting lasting around 18 months, #spycops posed as prospective clients to Azhar Khan and would make proposals to launder money and tempt him to commit other crimes.

The Met later arrested his client, spuriously, for money laundering, he says.

Andrew Trollope says that the Met claimed to have “intelligence” that Azhar Khan was corrupt, but has never explained basis for suspecting this.

He accuses Met of simply trying to put Azhar Khan, who carried out work in criminal cases paid for by legal aid, out of business.

Dave Morris, one of the “McLibel 2”, sued for libel by McDonalds for a distributing a London Greenpeace leaflet, is giving his opening statement to inquiry in person, on how he, the McLibel Support Campaign and London Greenpeace were all targetted by #spycops.

Dave Morris draws a parallel between #spycops scandal at Met and phone-hacking scandal at News of the World.

He tells inquiry in his opening statement: “To hack people’s lives is infinitely worse.”

Dave Morris says that while #spycops focusses on campaign groups seeking to reform society, they paid no attention to “greedy and unethical corporations” and “tax-avoiding hedge funds” who seek to overturn regulation to aid their pursuit of profit and power.

Imran Khan is back again to deliver a third opening statement to #spycops inquiry, on behalf of the Monitoring Group, formerly known as the Southall Monitoring Group, a long-established anti-racist group.

Pete Weatherby, speaking for 18 non-state core participants (campaigning individuals or groups), presses #spycops inquiry, like other inquiries, to order Met to give “position statements”.

Instead, he says, Met is “putting the inquiry to proof” with a “swaggering arrogance”.

Peter Weatherby to #spycops inquiry in opening statement: “Political policing happens elsewhere, or so is the pretence.”

But it has been happening in UK. “Political policing has a long and ignominious history.”

Dissent and protest is a “bulwark against authoritarianism”, says Peter Weatherby.

The activities of #spycops to disrupt such movements are the actions of a “police state”.

Not only do we have political policing, Peter Weatherby tells #spycops inquiry, “We have an elision of policing with espionage.”

Pete Weatherby tells #spycops inquiry: “This inquiry relates to interference with civil, political and human rights undertaken on an industrial scale, over decades.

“It involves investigating policing which grotesquely interfered with democratic rights themselves.”

“The inquiry has a choice. It can drag these activities out into the light of open justice,” says Pete Weatherby to #spycops inquiry, “or it can continue to operate in the shadows with a preoccupation for secrecy.”

“The latter can only result in failure and whitewash.”

And, Pete Weatherby tells #spycops inquiry, “the clue is in the name – a public inquiry”.

That concludes today’s hearing for #spycops inquiry.

Sir John Mitting, inquiry chairman, says that there may be a further opening statement or two tomorrow before the evidence session begins with testimony from Tariq Ali.