A civil servant who leaked documents about the Government’s controversial dialogue with Islamist groups was cleared yesterday of breaching the Official Secrets Act.

The case against Derek Pasquill collapsed at the Old Bailey after the disclosure that senior figures in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office thought that the leaks may have been in the public interest. Lawyers for the Crown told the court that in the light of those disclosures the prosecution could not continue.

Mr Pasquill, 49, a civil servant at the FCO, said his acquittal meant that his decision to leak the documents to a journalist had been the right thing to do. But he said he had been subjected to “a very unpleasant ordeal”.

He added: “Over a period of 20 months I have been arrested, suspended from my job, subject to a Special Branch investigation, on police bail and then charged.

“I am relieved that I have now been completely vindicated in my actions in exposing dangerous government policy and changing its priorities.”

Mr Pasquill said he knew that leaking the papers had been “a dangerous way to proceed” but he believed that the issue was clearly in the public interest. Mr Pasquill added: “As soon as it clicked that there was perhaps a dangerous policy being put in place, the decision to actually pass documents to a journalist who was covering this particular issue didn’t take that long.”

The papers included memos revealing engagement with the hardline Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt; discussions over whether extremist groups in Britain should be proscribed under terrorism legislation; a strategy paper on winning “hearts and minds” among the Muslim population and an assessment of whether the hardline cleric Yusuf al Qaradawi should be banned from the country.

They were posted anonymously to Martin Bright, political editor of the New Statesman, and enabled him to write a series of articles raising questions about the direction of FCO policy in engaging with Islamist organisations.

Since the controversy caused by the leaks, the Government has reduced contact with Islamist groups and attempted to broaden its dialogue with the Muslim community.

The stories also triggered a leak inquiry and, eventually, led to the arrest of Mr Pasquill, from Notting Hill, West London.

He was charged in January 2006 with six offences under the Official Secrets Act and ordered to stand trial at the Old Bailey.

Julian Knowles, for the defence, said: “Questions should be asked about why material which led to the dropping of the prosecution was hidden. It is very much a regret this material was not disclosed at an earlier stage.”

The Recorder of London, Peter Beaumont, QC, ordered that not guilty verdicts should be entered on all six counts.

A spokesman for the FCO said that Mr Pasquill, who is suspended on full pay, could still be subject to internal disciplinary measures.

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