A former employee of British intelligence has strongly denied accusations of passing on state secrets to Chinese intelligence in exchange for money.
Following the accusations, which surfaced last week in the European press, some media outlets have suggested that the former employee is currently under investigation by at least one European government.
The former M16 employee in question has been identified as Fraser Cameron, a British businessman who worked in an intelligence capacity from 1976 to 1991. During this period, Cameron was reportedly employed by the Secret Intelligence Service – MI6, Britain’s equivalent of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
After 1991, he worked for the British Foreign Office and then moved on to the European Commission, before relocating to Belgium, where it is believed, he has lived for the last 20 years.
According to a report from the news website Politico, Cameron has been “a visiting professor at several universities in Asia” and currently directs the Belgium-based EU-Asia Centre.
Last week, media outlets, including Politico, reported that Belgian security agencies are probing Cameron’s alleged links with “two Chinese journalists accredited in Brussels”, who are believed to work as intelligence officers.
Politico even cited “a person close to the case” saying an investigation has been launched by Belgium’s office of the federal prosecutor after it was found that the two journalists were in fact secretly working for China’s Ministry of State Security.
According to Politico’s report which sites sources in Belgium as saying, Cameron’s alleged activities “could constitute a risk for European officials”.
A report by the BBC cited “a senior [British] official” saying the Belgian probe was the result of a “long-running joint inquiry between British and Belgian intelligence” into the case, which incidentally achieved “a breakthrough in recent months”.
Refuting and denying these allegations Cameron said, they were “absurd”. He also described them as being “without foundation”.
“I retired 15 years ago from official employment and have zero access to any sensitive information,” said Cameron.
