UK Foreign Office to pay £423,000 to settle whistleblower’s employment claim
The UK government has agreed to pay £423,000 to settle an employment lawsuit brought forward by one of its former prosecutors, over claims she was pushed out of her job at the Foreign Office, after she sought to blow the whistle on corruption involving suspected Kosovo criminals and officials from the EU.
International prosecutor Mariah Bamieh claims she was pushed out of her job at the Foreign Office, after she sought to expose corruption within the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), while on secondment with the EU mission.
The settlement comes after Bamieh claimed two top EULEX officials took bribes from Kosovo criminals in return for dropping cases against them, after hundreds of judges and prosecutors were sent to the country as part of the EU mission.
The barrister said senior officials in the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) told her to “turn a blind eye” towards apparent evidence of collusion between EULEX officials and suspected criminals in Kosovo, before she was dismissed from her job in 2014.
A Foreign Office said: “We have agreed to settle this long-running case without any admission of liability and continue to strongly refute these allegations.”
Bamieh’s lawyer, Mike Cain, partner at law firm Leigh Day, said: “The protection of whistleblowers is crucial for a fair and functioning democratic society.”
“It helps weed out corruption, prevent danger and stem illegality by ensuring that those that uncover information within their organisations are protected from retaliation.”