Mirror : Spy in the bag Gareth Williams was killed to protect Russian 'mole' in MI6, ex-KGB agent claims

Spy in the bag Gareth Williams was killed to protect Russian 'mole' in MI6, ex-KGB agent claims

Boris Karpichkov says police claims that the MI6 operative's death was 'a tragic accident' are 'nonsense' and believes he was killed by the Russians

By Justin Penrose | November 17, 2013

Spy in the bag Gareth Williams was assassinated because he was about to reveal the identity of an MI6 employee working for the Russians, a former KGB agent has claimed.

Boris Karpichkov dismissed as “nonsense” Scotland Yard’s conclusion last week that Mr Williams’ death was an accident.

He says the spy had been working for a unit focusing on Russian intelligence and that Mr Williams, 31, a former codebreaker, had also been on training courses on field operations and had been given a new false passport with a secret identity.

Mr Karpichkov, a Latvian who fled to Britain in the late 1990s when his double life was exposed, said intelligence sources had passed on the bombshell new information.

Mr Karpichkov, who successfully turned foreign spies into double agents in Eastern Europe, told the Sunday Mirror: “I believe Gareth Williams was targeted by the Russian security services and was unlawfully killed.

“I am 100 per cent sure he was working for a unit against Russian intelligence, had a passport in a false name and had been on field operative training courses.

“One of two things happened. First Russian security services could have tried to recruit him as a mole, probably through blackmail.

“But if people refuse this, then it is all part of counter espionage games and he would not have been killed. It does not fit.

“During the course of his work he came across a mole inside MI6 working for the Russians. They probably tried to recruit him to keep this information hidden.

“When he refused, he became a threat to Russian security services and at the point when he was going to reveal the mole agent inside MI6, he was killed.

“When I was exposed in Latvia, my bosses told me to kill those who had betrayed me, giving me a licence to kill as was about to be exposed. I didn’t and left the country.”

Mr Karpichkov claims the FSB - the successor organisation to Russia's KGB - would have placed him under surveillance by using hidden cameras in unmarked cars’ rear view mirrors.

Video would have picked up from the cars simply by driving past.

The former KGB agent said he saw several cars with Russian diplomatic number plates in the area in the two months before Mr Williams died and a Russian agent in unmarked British car.

Police last week claimed that “on the balance of probabilities” nobody else was present when Mr Williams got into a bag in his bath and padlocked himself inside.

This was despite there being no DNA on the pad lock and no palm prints on the bath - making it impossible for him to get in by himself.

Between 10 and 15 unidentified traces of DNA were found at the flat.

The door of the flat in Pimlico, South West London was also locked from the outside.

Despite being a strict time keeper, none of Mr Williams’ colleagues reported him missing for over a week and none went into his flat.

His boss, known as Agent G, went and only knocked on the door twice.

The heating in the flat had been turned onto full blast despite it being in the height of summer - rapidly increasing the speed that the body decomposed.

Mr Karpichkov added: “To say that he died accidentally is ridiculous and nonsense.

“MI6 failed to report him being missing as they would not have wanted it being revealed that they may have an operative working for the Russian security services.”

Last year, Coroner Fiona Wilcox ruled that on the balance of probabilities Mr Williams was unlawfully killed and it was unlikely that he got into the bag himself.

But Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt last week said it was “beyond credibility” that Scotland Yard had been duped by MI6 as part of a cover up.

He said: “I do not believe that I have had the wool pulled over my eyes. "I believe that we are dealing with a tragic, unexplained death.”

Mr Williams’ parents Ian and Ellen have rejected the police claims.A