[ad_1]
A prime aide to Prince Andrew is urging a court docket to withhold his account of the prince’s relationship with an alleged Chinese spy as a result of he didn’t realise it might grow to be public.
Dominic Hampshire performed a key function within the improvement of Yang Tengbo’s relationship with the Duke of York – however the full particulars of what occurred between the three males stay unclear.
Last month a court docket rejected Mr Yang’s enchantment in opposition to being banned from the UK, after an intelligence evaluation that he might be secretly working for the Chinese state. Mr Yang has denied all wrongdoing.
Lawyers for the BBC and different media organisations argued on the Special Immigrations Appeal Commission (Siac) on Friday that Mr Hampshire couldn’t hold his account non-public just because he had lacked the “common sense” to search out out if it would grow to be public.
In December, the court docket stated Mr Yang had fashioned an “unusual degree of trust” with the prince and had not disclosed his hyperlinks to an arm of the Chinese Communist Party clandestinely concerned in political interference.
It upheld the house secretary’s conclusion that he was a menace to nationwide safety.
The BBC and different information organisations at the moment are asking Siac to launch a witness assertion that Mr Hampshire wrote in assist of Mr Yang after the aide had been first contacted by British intelligence.
In submissions on Friday, legal professionals for Mr Hampshire stated that he had sought assurances from Mr Yang’s legal professionals that the witness assertion would stay non-public – and he had solely realised it might grow to be public when he arrived on the enchantment listening to final July.
Mr Hampshire then withdrew the assertion in an try to forestall it from turning into public.
“I was told that the information [in the statement] would be kept private and confidential,” Mr Hampshire stated to the court docket in written submissions on Friday.
“If there was any question of this being available in the public domain, I was not warned of it.
“If I had been, I’d by no means have agreed to submit a witness assertion, a lot much less go into the extent of confidential element which I did.
“I wrote what I did in the statement with such candour – including about my own confidential commercial interests but also about the private interests of third parties – in the expectation it was for the private attention of one of the most senior ministries of state on a grave matter.
“I fairly merely wouldn’t have volunteered to jot down about these issues had I identified that there was any likelihood, nevertheless small, that it was to be used in a discussion board which was or might grow to be public.”
Adam Wolanski KC, representing the media organisations, said there was an exceptionally strong public interest case to release Mr Hampshire’s account to journalists, along with other documents that remain confidential.
“It is extraordinary that an individual in Mr Hampshire’s place, apparently charged with coping with confidential and delicate issues on behalf of the Duke of York, didn’t trouble acquiring his personal authorized recommendation earlier than agreeing to supply a witness assertion to Mr Yang,” said Mr Wolanski in written submissions.
“Mr Hampshire can’t now pray in assist his mystifying and unexplained choice to offer a witness assertion on this clearly extremely contentious matter with out in search of his personal authorized recommendation.
“He should not be permitted to benefit from his, to put it kindly, lack of common sense and his bad decision to proceed without legal advice.
“The court docket should as an alternative proceed on the premise that he made this choice along with his eyes open, figuring out the danger that the proof could grow to be public.”
Mr Yang became a highly trusted confidante of Prince Andrew following the duke’s interview with the BBC’s Newsnight programme in November 2019, which detailed the Duke’s friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The fallout from the interview led to the prince withdrawing from public duties – and the end of his commercially successful Dragons Den-style investor events in the UK and China.
In March 2020, Mr Hampshire told Mr Yang in a letter that he had managed to salvage the prince’s reputation in China.
Seven months later the businessman was authorised to represent the prince in China in a planned $3bn investment fund.
The “Eurasia Fund” scheme aimed to raise cash to invest in Chinese state projects in Africa and the Middle East.
Developing the regions is a cornerstone of the Chinese Communist Party’s plan to expand its diplomatic and financial reach.
The discovery of the scheme, and the fear that the prince was being drawn into a complex Beijing plan to influence him, led the home secretary to ban Mr Yang from the UK.
He has denied all wrongdoing – saying he is a legitimate businessman who has worked for decades to improve links between China and the UK.
Mr Yang came to study in the UK in 2002 and later set up a series of China-related travel and business consultancy firms.
He met the Duke of York in 2014 and later took on a role in the China-based version of Prince Andrew’s “Pitch@Palace” events, in which entrepreneurs sell their ideas to investors.
Siac will rule in a while whether or not additional paperwork from the case will likely be made public.
[ad_2]
