MI5 agents have surveilled many reporters critical of their actions in Northern Ireland
British intelligence agency MI5 unlawfully spied on Irish journalist Vincent Kearney for eight years, his lawyers have told a tribunal in London. MI5 agents allegedly monitored Kearney’s calls, contacts, and movements while he reported from Northern Ireland.
Kearney was monitored by MI5, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and London’s Metropolitan Police between 2006 and 2014, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) heard this week. The IPT is a special court set up to investigate complaints against Britain’s spy agencies.
Kearney’s phone records were illegally obtained by MI5, while the PSNI and Metropolitan Police used “geographic data” obtained from more than 1,500 of his texts to build a “detailed intelligence profile” of Kearney, which included details on his relationships and family members’ addresses, his lawyers told the IPT.
MI5 admitted last year to accessing Kearney’s phone records, but claimed that its agents only did so on two occasions in 2006 and 2009.
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