The controversial exposé they originally banned is now back on sale – with no changes to the disputed text
Comment by Margaret Gilmore
I wrote the book with Andy and it is a great story. The good news is it is back on sale. You can get it via Amazon and it will soon be back in Waterstones and other good bookshops. As you can imagine, after all the effort we went to, to get the book vetted we were very disappointed and bemused by this injunction and are very happy to see it back on the bookshelves. We believe the book is of huge public importance and should be available – and if you believe those who’ve read it – you’ll find it’s a really exciting read.
The controversial exposé they originally banned is now back on sale – with no changes to the disputed text.
The Terrorist Hunters had already been serialised in The Times newspaper and had sold nearly 800 copies in less than a week, when it was temporarily banned at the request of the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland.
High Court Judge, the Hon. Mr. Justice Tugendhat, who heard the case, recognised the importance of the book, stating “In my judgment the book aims to inform the public on matters of the greatest public interest, and it does so in a serious way”. He nevertheless agreed that further sales of the book should be delayed to ensure a section was not read by jurors in an ongoing court case and interpreted by them, rightly or not, as a reference to that case.
The temporary injunction imposed by the Hon. Mr. Justice Tugendhat has now been lifted.
Author Andy Hayman comments “We submitted the book for vetting by MI5 of our own accord and agreed to more than a hundred changes that MI5 and the Crown Prosecution Service asked for. Yet to our astonishment the CPS, via Baroness Scotland, called out a High Court Judge late one night to argue that the book be pulled. Under the circumstances this left the judge with little choice but to stall sales temporarily. We’re grateful the judge recognised the importance of the book and we are delighted it will be back on sale and accessible to the public again.