A former MI5 officer has been found guilty at the Old Bailey in London of breaching Britain's Official Secrets Act.
36-year-old David Shayler faces a jail sentence for disclosing secret documents and information including links between the Provisional IRA and Libya.
The prosecution said former MI5 agent David Shayler had placed the lives of other secret agents at risk by disclosing security service files to a Sunday newspaper in 1997.
Shayler, who had defended himself during his trial, claimed he had merely exposed the wrongdoing of the security services because they were a threat to liberty.
He had left MI5 and fled abroad for three years before returning to Britain to try to clear his name.
During the trial jurors had been allowed to see the secret documents - including British files on alleged links between the Provisional IRA and Colonel Ghaddafi's Libya. But the contents of those files were not read out in open court.
The former secret agent argued that prosecuting him under Britain's Official Secrets Act was incompatible with the new Human Rights Act.
David Shayler faces a prison sentence but will have to wait until tomorrow to find out how long he will have to serve.
