Men who tried to leak Bush memo jailed

A civil servant and an MP's researcher were jailed for disclosing the contents of a secret memo recording discussions between Tony Blair and George Bush about the war in Iraq.

David Keogh, 50, a Cabinet Office communications officer, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for copying the four-page document and passing it on to Leo O'Connor, 44, a researcher for an anti-war Labour MP, Tony Clarke. O'Connor, who passed the memo to Mr Clarke, was jailed for three months for breaching the Official Secrets Act.

The case has provoked accusations that the men, who denied the charges, were victims of a prosecution that was more about preveting political embarrassment to Mr Blair than national security. After the convictions at the Old Bailey, Mr Clarke, now MP for Walton, who earned the thanks of Mr Blair for returning the memo to Downing Street, said he hoped his former researcher would appeal against his conviction.

James Welch, legal director of Liberty, the human rights group, said: "National security and diplomacy require some secrecy but the Official Secrets Act is a very blunt instrument. It fails to distinguish between the public interest and political embarrassment and between genuine whistleblowers and those who actually put lives at risk."

The trial judge imposed an order prohibiting any further reference to what was said between the two world leaders when they met in Washington in April 2004.

Keogh's solicitor, Stuart Jeffery, said: "He took a moral stance on something that he found shocking. It was never his intention to put lives at risk." He said he was considering an appeal.