Nick Allen and Gordon Rayner
UK Telegraph
February 26, 2008
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| Sir Richard confirmed that a plan to kill a Balkan leader during the war in 1993 was put down on paper by an agent, but said it was "killed stone dead" straight away. | |
The former head of MI6 has admitted in court that a secret plan was drawn up to assassinate a Balkan leader suspected of genocide.
Sir Richard Dearlove, the most senior spy to give evidence before a British jury, confirmed that MI6 was authorised to use “lethal force” against specific targets if it had ministerial approval.
But, as he gave evidence at the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, he said assassination had never been used during his 38 years in the service, and denied “absolutely” that MI6 agents had murdered the Princess.
Sir Richard, codenamed “C” during his time as head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, was defending the agency against allegations made by Mohamed Fayed and two former spies.
Richard Tomlinson had claimed that MI6 had plotted to assassinate the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, while David Shayler has spoken in the past of a plot to kill Libya’s president Col Muammar Gaddafi.
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