A former GCHQ employee accused of taking top-secret data home will face a partially secret trial. Parts of the trial will be heard behind closed doors and some witnesses will give evidence anonymously.
A former GCHQ employee accused of damaging national security by taking top secret data home will be tried partly in secret, a senior judge has decided. Hasaan Arshad, 25, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, has been charged with an offence under the Computer Misuse Act after an investigation led by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command. On Wednesday (December 18), Mrs Justice McGowan confirmed his trial would take place next March 31 at the Old Bailey in London.
The senior judge also ruled that some witnesses would give evidence anonymously and parts of the trial would be heard behind closed doors, in the absence of the press and public. Arshad, who is on bail, has denied wrongdoing and was not required to attend the hearing. The charge relates to the defendant’s alleged activities before going home on August 24 2022. It is claimed he took his work mobile phone into a top-secret area and connected the device to a top-secret work station. He is accused of transferring sensitive data from a secure, top-secret computer to the phone before taking it home. Arshad allegedly then transferred the data from the phone to a hard drive connected to his personal home computer. The defendant was arrested and his home was searched on September 22 2022. He was charged under Section 3ZA of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, relating to 'unauthorised acts causing, or creating risk of, serious damage'. The charge states: “Between August 23 2022 and September 23 2022 (he) did an unauthorised act in relation to a computer and at the time of doing the act knew that it was unauthorised; and the act caused, or created a significant risk of a material kind, this being damage to the national security of a country; and he intended by doing the act to cause serious damage of a material kind or was reckless as to whether such damage was cause
GCHQ National Security Data Breach Computer Misuse Trial
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