Former Soviet spy makes shock claims that ‘Jeremy Corbyn was our asset…he had been recruited’ and was ‘a paid collaborator’
The Labour leader denied claims that he worked on behalf of Czechoslovakia's government
The Labour leader denied claims that he worked on behalf of Czechoslovakia's government
A FORMER Cold War spy has claimed Jeremy Corbyn was paid to work as a Communist intelligence “asset”.
Lt Jan Dymic — real name Jan Sarkocy — alleged the Labour leader was in collaboration with the Soviet-era Czechoslovakian intelligence agency StB in the late-1980s.
He said he met the left-wing Labour MP on numerous occasions in the House of Commons and at his Seven Sisters constituency office.
Dymic, later kicked out of Britain in 1989, said Mr Corbyn gave him “very good” information valued by his country and its Russian masters.
Mr Corbyn on Friday night denied being paid by Communist secret police to spy on Britain.
The Sun revealed this week that Mr Corbyn met Czechoslovak agent Dymic in the House of Commons.
The spy said he was the MP's "handler" during the 1980s.
Mr Dymic told Czech media today he handed over cash to Mr Corbyn in return for information - after The Sun revealed the pair met in the Commons.
The ex-spy said: "Corbyn was recruited. He also received money."
He insisted that when he met Mr Corbyn - codenamed COB - in the 80s, the leftie politician was a paid collaborator and knew Mr Dymic was a spy and not just a diplomat.
Mr Dymic said the information provided by Mr Corbyn was "rated in Moscow as the number one".
The ex-spy says Mr Corbyn spoke to other Soviet-controlled Czech agents and attended events at Czechoslovakia’s embassy twice a year.
And he claimed the MP was told he could move to Russia if he ever got in trouble with the British authorities.
He passed on information about a British government crackdown on Communist spies.
The spy added: "We were doing what the Russians couldn’t.
“He knew that I was there as a diplomat.
At that time there was no question about whether you were working for the StB or as a diplomat. It was the same.
“There was no reason to stress that I was working for the StB.
“When we got a tip on someone we worked together with the Russians.
Their embassy was right across the street. We knew who, what, when.”
Mr Dymic said: “He used to participate in receptions in our embassy. He didn’t get any info from us.
"But if something happened at the time, he knew he could go live in Russia."
The allegations call into question Mr Corbyn’s original statement in which he claimed to have met a Czech diplomat “for a cup of tea in the House of Commons”.
Ms Svetlana Ptacnikova, who runs the Czech spy archive, claimed that Mr Corbyn would not have known Jan Dymic was a secret agent.
She confirmed The Sun's revelation that the pair met for talks - but said the MP was never "registered as a collaborator" with the country's secret service.
The Sun had reported they met three times between 1986 and 1987.
JEREMY CORBYN should have known the Czech "diplomat
Richard Dearlove told The Sun the Communist approach to Mr Corbyn was a "classic cultivation" typical of the way the Soviet bloc operated.
He said: "Either Jeremy Corbyn was incredibly naïve or he knew exactly what was happening to him, so he was complicit in all this.
“These are genuine documents which shows he was targeted and the case was advanced, at a time when a very unpleasant Czech regime was persecuting dissidents. They were the enemies of the West.
“They wouldn’t have targeted him unless they believed he was a Communist fellow traveller.”
Sir Richard also suggested the spies from Czechoslovakia were being used as a front by the Russian KGB.
Ms Ptacnikova revealed they had discovered files outlining an alleged fourth meeting between Dymic, Mr Corbyn and an unknown third man in 1988.
Dymic said he was in touch with the future Labour leader between 1986 and 1989 and met him more than three times.
He added: “It’s not important what you can find in official documents.
"Don’t forget, a lot of them were destroyed.”
Researchers in Prague explained there were 100 pages of documents on Dymic and did not rule out uncovering more revelations.
A spokesman for the Labour leader rubbished Mr Dymic's claims and insisted Mr Corbyn never had any links with the Communist regime.
The spokesman said: "As Svetlana Ptacnikova, director of the Czech Security Forces Archive, has made clear, Jeremy was neither an agent, asset, informer nor collaborator with Czechoslovak intelligence.
"The former Czechoslovak agent Jan Sarkocy’s account of his meeting with Jeremy was false 30 years ago, is false now and has no credibility whatsoever.
"His story has more plot holes in it than a bad James Bond movie."
After The Sun revealed Mr Corbyn's meetings with the Communist spy, ministers said it proved he can never be trusted to protect the country.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: "Time and time again he has sided with those who want to destroy everything that is great about this country.
“That he met foreign spies is a betrayal of this country. He cannot be trusted."
AN EAST German secret police file on Jeremy Corbyn is being kept under lock and key.
It was drawn up when he was granted access by the state in the 1970s.
The Stasi archives office can release records on important figures of “contemporary history”.
But it has refused a request on Mr Corbyn, saying he does not meet that criteria.
Experts called on the Labour leader to officially ask for his file and reveal its contents. They fear he could otherwise be vulnerable to blackmail.
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