How Labour secretly put Libyan dissidents under house arrest at Gaddafi's behest following Blair's 'deal in the desert'

EXCLUSIVE: Top-secret documents discovered abandoned in ambassador's residence by the Mail on Sunday reveal Blair government's double-dealing
Government 'used control orders to appease Gaddafi', says David Davis

Last updated at 11:37 AM on 11th September 2011

Labour used controversial control orders to put Libyan dissidents in Britain under house arrest – at the behest of Colonel Gaddafi.

The revelation will revive the debate about the draconian anti-terrorism measures and raise questions over whether they have been misused as tools of international diplomacy.

The disclosure, in documents abandoned in the British Ambassador’s residence in Tripoli, suggests at least 12 UK-based opponents of Gaddafi may have been double-crossed by the Labour Government.

More than 50 Libyan dissidents won asylum in Britain 15 years ago, at a time when Gaddafi was an international pariah.

But after Tony Blair signed his infamous ‘deal in the desert’ in 2004, bringing Gaddafi in from the cold, several people were designated a terrorist risk and put under house arrest. The documents suggest their alleged crimes were ‘passport forgery’ and ‘fundraising for relatives’.

Now some of those dissidents have returned to Libya as part of the Allied-backed operation to install a new pro-Western administration.

Tory MP David Davis, who was Shadow Home Secretary when control orders were introduced, said: ‘It looks as if the Labour Government used control orders as a way of appeasing Gaddafi by handicapping his opponents, rather than as a way of protecting the safety of British citizens. There should be a proper inquiry.’