LEADING Scottish criminal lawyers believe their conversations are routinely bugged by the security services and some have resorted to interviewing clients in streets and parks to avoid eavesdroppers, it emerged last night.
Lawyers admit they have no hard evidence for their claims but simply assume MI5 is listening in to their conversations with terror suspects and other major criminals.
Such is their level of cynicism about state surveillance, lawyers have told Scot
land on Sunday there is no point complaining because the security services will simply find another way to spy on them.
Their comments follow claims by a whistleblower that hundreds of jail conversations between inmates and lawyers and other visitors have been recorded by the security services. One English QC said dozens of prisoners could be freed on appeal if it is proved conversations with their legal representatives were illegally intercepted.
Last week it emerged that Labour MP Sadiq Khan had his conversations with alleged terror suspect Babar Ahmad secretly bugged whilst visiting him in HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire.
Paul McBride, one of Scotland's leading QCs, told Scotland on Sunday that he and his colleagues feared they too were under constant surveillance.
He added: "Most lawyers have suspected for some time that they are being bugged. It is a clear breach of the rules unless the lawyer himself is involved in a criminal act."
Although many lawyers believe they are being listened to during their conversations with clients, they say it is hard for them to take counter-measures.
One said: "The trouble is, when you are at a police station or in a courtroom interview room, you are
at the mercy of the authorities and so it is very difficult to do anything about it. You are monitored from the moment you go in and whatever you take in can be looked at and checked.
"I even know of several friends in the profession who, when they are being visited by clients who they know will be of interest to the authorities, actually suggest they go for a walk in the city centre to try and make it impossible for anyone to listen in."
Another high-profile Scottish lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said he too firmly believed legal conversations were being routinely intercepted.
He added: "Bugging is definitely going on. Surveillance is going on. We are certain that this is happening."
Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said that if the allegations about illegal intercepts in Scotland were true, a full investigation would be required.
He said: "Clearly, if this were to be the case, then it would be a serious matter and I would be calling for an enquiry – but we need more facts."
In England, Geoffrey Robinson QC has said there should be an immediate investigation into the claims, and added that if the allegations are true, criminals, some with very serious convictions, could be freed as a result by the courts.
