British police says will not investigate Huawei leak
British police said they will not investigate a leak of information about Chinese telecommunication company Huawei building UK's future internet infrastructure.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations Neil Basu rejected on Saturday demands that Gavin Williamson, the former defense minister who was sacked from the government over the leak, should be investigated for criminal offenses.
“The leak did not cause damage to the public interest at a level at which it would be necessary to engage misconduct in a public office. It would be inappropriate to carry out a police investigation in these circumstances,” Basu said, who is also in charge of Counter Terrorism (CT) policing in the UK.
“I am satisfied that what was disclosed did not contain information that would breach the Official Secrets Act,” he added.
The announcement come as the opposition Labour party had asked the police to probe Williamson and his possible offenses while he was in office. The government had also said during its own inquiry last month that a criminal investigation could follow.
Williamson was sacked on Wednesday after the government found that he was the source of a story in the Daily Telegraph which showed Prime Minister Theresa May had agreed during a meeting of the National Security Council last month to allow Huawei to be part of the future 5G network in the UK.
The story prompted the United States, which has banned Huawei from a similar project in the country, to criticize the UK government and even warn that Washington would withhold sensitive intelligence from London if it continues to cooperate with Huawei.
Williamson has denied any role in the leak while claiming that he has not been given details of evidence suggesting that he was behind the leak.
He insisted that the unwillingness of the police to probe the leak was a proof that government inquiry was a “shabby and discredited witch hunt”.
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