伦敦，11月3日电 —— 英国高等法院周二裁定，英国国内情报机构军情五处（MI5）及其工作人员无需因向伦敦高等法院提供虚假信息而面临藐视法庭诉讼，这一裁决促使该机构负责人再次为“严重失职”道歉。
LONDON, Nov 3 - Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 and its staff will not face contempt of court proceedings for providing false information to London's High Court, the court ruled on Tuesday, prompting the agency's chief to once again apologise for "serious failures".
高等法院在裁决中表示：“对任何个别官员、军情五处总干事或军情五处本身启动藐视法庭程序，将不符合公共利益。”
"It would not be in the public interest to initiate contempt proceedings against any individual officer, against the Director General of MI5 or against MI5 itself," the High Court said in its ruling.
法院补充称，如果警方认为掌握了足够证据证明存在滥用职权或妨碍司法公正等罪行，可将相关材料移交检方。
The court added that, if police considered they had sufficient evidence of an offence such as misconduct in public office or perverting the course of justice, it could be passed to prosecutors.
军情五处负责人肯·麦卡勒姆去年曾就该机构向法庭提供关于一名右翼极端分子的不实信息道歉，该极端分子是一名隐蔽人力情报来源，有时被称为“特工”。
MI5 chief Ken McCallum apologised last year after the agency provided untrue information about a right-wing extremist who was a covert human intelligence source, sometimes referred to as an agent.
英国广播公司（BBC）的一项调查发现，法庭称为“特工X”的这名军情五处特工曾虐待两名前伴侣，并向其中一名仅被称为“贝丝”的女子透露自己为军情五处工作，以此恐吓她。
A BBC investigation found the MI5 agent, referred to in court as "Agent X", had abused two former partners and told one of them, known only as "Beth", that he worked for MI5 in order to terrorise her.
当英国检察总长寻求禁制令阻止BBC曝光该男子身份时，一名军情五处证人称，该机构依据长期政策，既不证实也不否认线人的身份。
When Britain's attorney-general sought an injunction to prevent the BBC identifying the man, an MI5 witness said the agency had relied on its longstanding policy of neither confirming nor denying informants' identities.
但一名军情五处媒体官员实际上已向BBC记者证实，“特工X”是隐蔽人力情报来源，这意味着军情五处误导了高等法院，也误导了贝丝就其遭遇起诉军情五处的法庭。向法庭提供虚假陈述可被作为藐视法庭罪起诉。
But an MI5 media officer had in fact confirmed to a BBC journalist that Agent X was a covert human intelligence source, meaning MI5 had misled the High Court and also a tribunal in which Beth had sued MI5 over her treatment. Providing a false statement to courts can be prosecuted as a contempt of court.
麦卡勒姆周二在声明中说：“今天的判决凸显了军情五处在本案中的严重失职。我重申为这些失职道歉，并为它们给贝丝造成的额外痛苦道歉。”
In a statement on Tuesday, MI5 chief McCallum said: "Today's judgment underlines MI5's serious failures in this case. I repeat my apology for those failures, and for the additional distress they caused to Beth." REUTERS