In proceedings brought before an English court by a former employee of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, it was alleged Foreign Office staff failed to protect or support UK Nationals who reported criminal offences committed by staff including bribery, corruption and interference in criminal cases. Judge Malcolm Simmons was expected to give evidence in that case on behalf of the Claimant. Days before the court was expected to hear the evidence of Judge Simmons, the UK Foreign Office settled the claim and agreed to pay substantial damages.
It is alleged the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office settled the claim in order to avoid independent scrutiny of these and other matters, including an enquiry into the unlawful hacking of the private emails of a UK judge.
The UK Foreign Office ignored the request of Judge Simmons to intervene in the case of another UK National-turned whistle blower. It is that case, in respect of which the UK Foreign Office has now paid substantial damages.
The UK Foreign Office has now disclosed documents that includes an instruction to the UK Representative in Brussels, Angus Lapsley, to reject calls for an independent investigation into allegations of corruption. These were allegations of corruption that should have been the subject of a proper investigation – not simply summarily dismissed by diplomats working within the UK Foreign Office.
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office repeatedly attempted to frustrate a transparent enquiry into allegations that its staff turned a blind eye to corruption and may have facilitated the commission of criminal offences. Despite documented abuses of justice and rule of law, the former Foreign Secretary, now Justice Secretary, Dominc Raab, refused to investigate or to refer the allegations to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, claiming a “conflict of interest”.
Judge Malcolm Simmons has consistently called for a public inquiry into these and other matters. The decision of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to spend public money in order to avoid an external review of its involvement in these matters, will only serve to fuel those demands.
Judge Malcolm Simmons in currently the resident judge of the Falkland Islands, Acting Supreme Court Judge and Her Majesty’s Coroner for the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctica. He served as an international judge from 2004 to 2017 hearing war crime and serious and organised crime cases. He presided in some of the most complex war crime and serious organised crime cases in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo during their troubled post-war periods. He served as President of EU International Judges from 2014 to 2017. He is particularly well-known for his judicial reform work and has more that 20 years of experience training judges, prosecutors and lawyers. He has worked in judicial reform projects in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Pakistan and Maldives.