AIVD puts an end to leaks of state secrets
The General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) has informed the Public Prosecution Service (OM) via an official report of its suspicions that a 39-year-old employee, her partner and a journalist from De Telegraafdaily newspaper are guilty of leaking state secrets.
In a press release, the Public Prosecution Service announced that the public prosecutor in The Hague has decided to arrest the employee and her partner today, Thursday 18 June, and to search their house and work environment. The AIVD employee is suspected of violating her confidentiality obligation on at least two occasions by sharing secret information with her partner and with the reporter from De Telegraaf. These persons therefore obtained state secret information in an unauthorised manner.
In March of this year, a draft of a confidential internal memo is alleged to have been shown to the reporter from De Telegraaf. On the instructions of the head of the AIVD, this internal draft memo assessed what information had been issued to the ministers involved in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
The journalist in question incorporated the secret analysis in an article published on 28 March 2009 under the headline ‘AIVD failed with regard to Iraq’. The second article dealt with the security risks relating to the visit of the Dalai Lama. This was published in early June.
The publication of 28 March was reason for the AIVD to launch an investigation into the possibility that a draft of the internal memo had been leaked to the newspaper. This investigation concluded that the AIVD employee in question had access to the relevant draft version of the secret document. Furthermore, it became clear that the employee and her partner had clandestine contacts with the reporter from De Telegraaf.
Revealing state secrets is a crime liable to punishment in accordance with the Dutch Criminal Code. Not only persons who leak state secrets are guilty of violating such secrets, the same applies to the persons who have such secrets at their disposal.