By CARROLL DU CHATEAU
The British Government is sending a team of high-powered witnesses to New Zealand to block the publication of a book about the Gulf War by a former SAS soldier.
The New Zealander, now back living in Auckland, has written a manuscript called Soldier Five under the pseudonym Mike Coburn.
The soldier was a member of an SAS patrol called Bravo Two Zero Two, which met disaster behind enemy lines on a botched mission to sabotage Iraqi Scud missile attacks on Israel. Three of his colleagues were killed.
The British are trying to stop the book even though two worldwide bestsellers about the patrol have already been published.
Two years ago it spent more than $1 million in vain trying to block a TVNZ Assignment programme about Coburn.
The Aucklander's take on events differs from that in the other two books. He wants to put the record straight about the three deaths.
Eighteen months ago worried British authorities obtained an interim injunction against publication, partly based on Coburn's having signed a confidentiality deal about his SAS activities.
Their next legal move is to contest a subsequent High Court challenge to the suppression of the book.
A hearing is set down to begin in the High Court at Auckland on October 23. Coburn's lawyers, headed by Auckland barrister Warren Templeton, are understood to be running a defence based on freedom of expression.
Says Templeton: "My client is not doing it for the money. He's seeking the right to publish because he has something significant to say."
Coburn's role has already been publicised, first as the tree-trunk legged Mark the Kiwi in Andy McNab's bestseller, and again in The One That Got Away by Chris Ryan.
Both men made millions by selling their stories.
Since the interim injunction against Soldier Five, Coburn's New Zealand publisher, Reed, which had reached the stage of ordering the paper and a cover design, has dropped the project. If Coburn wins his legal battle, however, it is likely a publisher will pick the book up.
Fight continues for soldier 'left for dead'
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