A refugee from Afghanistan who lied to gain asylum in Britain and claimed he worked for MI6 and met the King, has rejected allegations he is a Russian spy.
A court heard that the alleged spy - who is identified as C2 - also worked for the Home Office, GCHQ and MI6.
C2 was stripped of British citizenship in 2019 after MI5 suggested he was an agent for the GRU - the Russian military intelligence agency accused of carrying out the nerve agent attack in Salisbury.
In 2000, he was given asylum after claiming he had come directly from Afghanistan and was running from the Taliban.
A refugee from Afghanistan who lied to gain asylum in Britain and claimed he worked for MI6 and met the King, has rejected allegations he is a Russian spy. (Stock image)
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However, he lived for six years in Russia and on Tuesday admitted to the court that he had lied in his asylum application.
He said he did not inform the UK about living in Russia out of fear of being deported, The Times reports.
C2 claims he went on to work for GCHQ, MI6, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office.
During a hearing before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), it was revealed that he had access to "top secret" documents while working for the British Government in Britain and Afghanistan.
He also claims, he worked with David Cameron and Gordon Brown and met Prince Charles and Prince William.
The court was told that he began working as a self-employed interpreter for public bodies including the police, courts and Home Office, before he moved to Afghanistan to work for the Foreign Office in the late 2000s.
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He later went on to work in Afghanistan for a series of roles which saw him dealing with Russian officials, and visited Russia at least six times.
The court heard he had passed cash bribes to two Russian military attaches which he later found out were GRU operatives.
He also admitted to meeting an official in the Russian Foreign Ministry.
He said they often chatted, adding: "He had sent me and I had sent him naked pictures of women."
C2 claims he never suspected two men he met at an embassy party to be Russian intelligence officers.
"Afghanistan was at war… From diplomats to troops, all the way up and down, everyone was fishing for information and knowledge," he said.
C2 was stripped of British citizenship in 2019 after M15 suggested he was an agent for the GRU - the Russian military intelligence agency accused of carrying out the nerve agent attack in Salisbury
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But addressing C2, Justice Jay said: "I think it is being suggested to you that you would have to be pretty naive to think that someone like him [one of the GRU assets] was not a Russian military agent."
C2 said he was asked to meet an officer from British intelligence and a man from the FBI when he flew to London from Kabul to see his family.
He added that the pair accused him of being trained by the GRU since the age of five.
During a second meeting, C2 said he was asked to take a lie detector test and was told he had failed it before being told his British citizenship was being stripped.
In court this week, C2’s barrister Robert Palmer KC said C2 had put his life at risk while working for the Foreign Office in Afghanistan and had a "track record of loyalty to the UK".
