By CARROLL DU CHATEAU
If you're thinking of buying a copy of Soldier Five, by former SAS soldier "Mike Coburn," for Christmas, think again. The book will not be out this year - or in the near future.
Yesterday, the British Ministry of Defence's lawyers announced they would appeal against Justice Peter Salmon's decision to allow publication of the book about the Gulf War's Bravo Two Zero mission.
Coburn, a West Aucklander who cannot use his real name, says he is determined to tell the truth about the disastrous mission in which three men died and four were captured and tortured.
The ministry's case rested on the fact that Coburn had signed a confidentiality contract before he left the armed services.
Justice Salmon ruled it was unlawful for the ministry to order Mr Coburn to give up his civil rights to disclose information once he had left the SAS and that, among other things, he had signed the contract under economic pressure which was "illegitimate and so constituted duress."
The second part of Justice Salmon's ruling, that only minor passages in the book were sensitive, remains unchallenged.
The case will now go to the Court of Appeal in Wellington.
Mr Coburn, who staged his victory party last weekend after returning home from North Africa, was yesterday disappointed but resigned to the appeal.
"It doesn't surprise us in the least. The timing's so typical of them ... They obviously take great delight in causing as much distress to people as they can."
British stall SAS book sale
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