ALLEGED spy Ursula Beurton will not be prosecuted over her book,
Sonya's Story, Attorney General Sir Patrick Mayhew announced last night.
He said in a Commons written reply that acting Director of Public
Prosecutions David
Gandy had decided it ''would not be in the public interest'' to take
action against her.
The announcement came soon after Mrs Beurton, 84, announced that she
would not be coming to London as planned to promote the book.
Mrs Beurton, who fled Britain 41 years ago to East Germany, had been
due to give newspaper, radio and television interviews to mark Monday's
launch.
Sir Patrick had been asked by Tory Graham Riddick (Colne Valley) what
action he would take ''to stop the self-confessed spy Ursula Beurton
from profiteering from the sale of her book''.
He called for the matter to be referred to the DPP ''to decide what
case there is to be answered in light of Mrs Beurton's admission in the
book that she and her husband were Soviet intelligence officers''.
Sir Patrick replied: ''Taking into account all the circumstances, in
particular their ages, the lapse of some 50 years since any Official
Secrets Act offences may have been committed and the context in which
they were then operating, the acting director has decided it would not
be in the public interest to take any action against them in respect of
these offences.''
The Attorney General added: ''There does not at present appear to be
any basis for civil proceedings in respect of the publication of this
book.''
Mrs Beurton, in a statement issued yesterday by her publishers Chatto
and Windus, said: ''although I agreed to a wide range of newspaper,
radio and TV interviews in London, a camera team of ITN ignored this and
forced entry into my home in Germany.
''When newspapers repeat the lie that I worked for the KGB, I can deny
it again, but at 84 years of age I cannot hold a door against ruthless
younger people.
''I am sorry not to see England again, but at least an old socialist
has been introduced to the famous freedom of the press.''
German-born Mrs Beurton, whose code-name in her earlier days was
Sonya, was alleged to have passed British atomic bomb secrets from Klaus
Fuchs, a scientist at the Harwell research centre, to Stalin's regime.
However, in her book, written under the pen-name Ruth Werner, she has
denied that she ever worked for the KGB.
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