LONDON: Britain’s MI5 spy chief, who oversaw a safe Olympics and helped transform the Security Service’s counterterrorism operations in the wake of the 2005 London bombings, will step down next month.
Sir Jonathan Evans, appointed director general of the domestic intelligence service less than two years after the July 7 bombings, presided over an expansion in anti-terrorism operations. There were no major attacks on his five-year watch.
“He has experienced the service evolving over the years and as director general has led the service through particularly challenging times of change and unrest, including the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings,” said Theresa May, the home secretary or interior minister.
“I would like to pay tribute to Sir Jonathan for the 33 years he has dedicated to the service,” May told parliament.
A successor was not announced though local media have reported one of Evans’s deputies who commands counterterrorism operations could be appointed. MI5 chiefs, who were not publicly named until the 1990s, typically serve for about five years.
His successor’s first big test is likely to be the Group of Eight meeting due to be held in Northern Ireland in June.
Separately yesterday, a militant nationalist group in Northern Ireland said the hotel where G8 leaders are due to meet was the intended target of a bomb intercepted by Northern Irish police and defused last weekend.
REUTERS
