Facts

Junior foreign minister David Rutley told parliament last week in answer: “No Foreign and Commonwealth Office [FDCO] officials were directly assigned to work on Operation Pelican.”

Operation Pelican was the code name for the secret Metropolitan Police-led operation to seize Julian Assange from asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which was mounted in April 2019. 

However, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request in July last year, the Foreign Office had already admitted: “Three FCDO officials did some work on Operation Pelican, the most senior of which was Head of Latin America Department.”

Verdict

On the one hand David Rutley says no FCDO officials were “directly assigned” to Operation Pelican. On the other hand the FCDO acknowledges that three officials “did some work” on it. Masterful wording. 

We emailed David Rutley’s office and the FCDO offering them the chance to respond. The email was received by both, but no reply.