UK told to pay damages to Soviet spy

London: George Blake, who spied for the Soviet Union, won a human rights claim against the British government on Tuesday, 40 years after he escaped from prison in London and fled to Moscow.

Britain was ordered by judges in Strasbourg to pay 84-year-old Blake £3,350 (Dh23,365) in damages and £1,340 (Dh9,346) for breaching his right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time.

It took the European Court of Human Rights five years and eight months to decide Blake's case.

Blake, a double agent, had complained that legal action brought by the Attorney-General in the English courts in to stop him profiting from his autobiography had taken more than nine years to resolve.

Autobiography royalty

The law lords ruled against Blake in July 2000, and his publisher later donated £90,000 outstanding royalties on his autobiography to Save the Children. That ruling is unaffected by Tuesday's decision.

Blake, born in the Netherlands, was a member of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, from 1944 to 1961. Around 1951, he also became an agent for the Soviet Union and disclosed secret information to the Soviet authorities.

He was arrested in 1960. The following year he pleaded guilty to five counts of unlawfully communicating information contrary to the Official Secrets Act.

Sentenced to 42 years' imprisonment, he served five years before escaping from Wormwood Scrubs prison in London with the aid of British sympathisers. He fled to Russia, where he has remained.

In 1989, Blake wrote his autobiography, No Other Choice. Substantial parts were based on information acquired by him as an MI6 officer. Legal action to stop him profiting from his breach of confidence was launched in May 1991.

Tuesday, seven judges including Lord Brown, the British law lord who was sitting as a temporary judge at the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the government had not pursued the royalties case against Blake with the diligence required by the Human Rights Convention.

The Telegraph Group Limited