and the FBI refused to hand it over.
The case collapsed on Friday after the prosecution refused to comply with an order from Judge Stephen Kramer to give sensitive FBI documentation to Bukhari's defence.
The Crown Prosecution Service had made an application for permission to withhold the documents, but this was refused by the judge, a CPS spokeswoman said.
She said the documents were "sensitive", but declined to give further details. Legal sources said they were FBI documents.
"Following careful consideration by senior lawyers, prosecution counsel Julian Bevan QC today told the court and jury that as he was unable to fulfil his disclosure obligations in respect of this information, the CPS was no longer able to proceed and was offering no further evidence against Mr Bukhari," she said.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-24T152252Z_01_L24646850_RTRUKOC_0_UK-CRIME-BRITAIN-STING.xmlSo it's not so much lack of evidence as something that might embarrass the FBI, or throw a different light on what their evidence was.
Mr Sullivan is alleged to have first told Bukhari that he could supply him with a guided laser system' called Viper, which allows targets to be pinpointed from a distance, as well as a remote-control system, known as Piccolo, which would allow an unmanned aircraft to launch missile strikes.
...
Mr Bevan said that police had uncovered documentation in Bukhari's home relating to tenders for the supply of SA18 missiles. It was claimed the cost of the surface-to-air missiles would have exceeded US$38m.
Over the course of further meetings, the FBI agent made it clear that he was interested in obtaining weapons for the Colombian rebel group FARC and brought another undercover agent, calling himself Mr Ruben, who posed as a terrorist.
...
When he discovered that his conversations with Mr Sullivan had been recorded, he is said to have changed his mind and claimed the meetings were hocus pocus to try and find out who the FBI man was acting for'.
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/topstories/display.var.687277.0.missiles_for_sale.phpSo they claimed they had the recordings (though the reports don't make it clear that the court heard them, I presume that the prosecution was willing to play them, since it talked about them in open court). That's why I wonder what the documents were that they wouldn't disclose.