An Afghan man who worked for the UK government has lost a bid to regain British citizenship removed after he was exposed as a Russian agent.
The ‘highly intelligent, quick-witted and cunning’ man, known only as C2, was headhunted by the Home Office in 2006, having sought asylum here in 2000.
His skills as a ‘brilliant linguist’ brought him into close contact with some of the post powerful people in the country, a specialist tribunal heard.
While working with the Foreign Office, he ‘frequently accompanied high-level British officials and royalty, including prime ministers Brown and Cameron, and then-Prince Charles and Prince William’, Mr Justice Jay said.
The 50-year-old, who held UK security clearance, had previously worked for the Metropolitan Police.
He also claimed to have worked with UK intelligence agencies – MI6 and GCHQ – although neither confirmed or denied this.
But he is unlikely to ever brush shoulders with British royalty again after the HomeOffice – his former employer – deemed him an agent of the GRU, Vladimir Putin’s overseas military intelligence service.
C2’s experience working for the British government would ‘in itself be of value to the GRU’, the tribunal heard.
Now seen as a threat to UK national security, the Home Office revoked his citizenship in 2019, a decision he has now unsuccessfully appeal.
His UK citizenship had been granted in 2007.
Reasons for this decision could not be revealed to the public due to national security concerns, Mr Justice Jay said.
But it is believed C2’s work with the Afghan government in 2011 ‘inevitably brought him into contact with Russian officials’.
He later acquired Russian nationality in 2013 after, as C2 claims, marrying a Russian woman, the same year he resigned his role in Afghanistan.
A fuel trading company then employed him as its representative in Russia and other northern Eurasian countries.
The 50-year-old claimed to have had two meetings with British intelligence services during visits to family in the UK in 2019, after returning to the employ of the Afghan government.
His UK citizenship was subsequently revoked, with the Home Office declaring him a GRU agent deemed to ‘pose a threat to UK national security’.
C2 sought to restore it during a four-day appeal in February.
But a judge has now dismissed his bid, concluding that the Home Office’s assessment that is is an agent of Russian intelligence is ‘amply justified’.
The appeal was dismissed, in part, because C2 would need to know the national security case against him in order to contradict it.
But for national security reasons, that material is not available to him.
Court documents state he ‘was provided only with a limited amount of information’.
In a public ruling, Mr Justice Jay, sitting with Judge Mark Blundell and lay member Phillip Nelson, said: ‘This entire case hinges on the Home Secretary’s assessment that C2 at the material time was an agent of the GRU.’
He added: ‘If the primary assessment is upheld, the notion that it would be proportionate to deprive C2 of his British citizenship is, equally, not difficult to support.
‘Frankly, it would follow almost as night follows day.’
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