HOWARD UNDER PRESSURE OVER DRUG BARONS' PARDON

Tory leader-in-waiting asked to explain decision as Home Secretary to
free 18m smuggling pair?

The Tory leader-in-waiting, Michael Howard, was under pressure last
night to explain his role in obtaining a royal pardon for two of
Britain's most notorious drug barons.

John Haase and Paul Bennett were released in July 1996 when Howard was
Home Secretary, after serving just 11 months of their 18-year
sentences. Haase is now serving 13 years in jail for money-laundering
and supplying guns to Glasgow gangsters and there is a warrant out for
Bennett's arrest on drug-smuggling charges.

Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs will this week call for a full inquiry
into Howard's decision to release the two men, who ran an ?18 million
smuggling ring in Liverpool.

Howard, who forged a reputation for being tough on crime while serving
in the last Tory government, said shortly after their release that the
men had given vital information to Customs investigators, who in turn
had recommended to the trial judge that their sentences be reduced.

Howard has always maintained that he only did the judge's bidding. His
decision marked a return to the controversial 'supergrass' system,
which had largely ended after a series of cases in the Seventies in
which informers acted as agents provocateurs.

Haase and Bennett were said to have helped identify arms and drugs
caches. But despite their apparent importance as informers, in May
2001 the Treasury Minister, Dawn Primarolo, answering a question from
the Liverpool Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle, told Parliament that neither
man had given evidence in any Customs and Excise prosecutions and that
no further investigations were planned.

Howard will also be asked to clarify the role of one of his relatives
in the affair. Simon Bakerman, an associate of the Liverpool
gangsters, who contacted Haase after his release, is his distant cousin.

Bakerman was jailed for three years in November 2002 for setting up a
factory to manufacture amphetamine and ketamine pills.

His father, Warner Bakerman, who still lives in Liverpool, told The
Observer last week that he had nothing to say about Michael Howard.
But his wife Freda has claimed that Howard visited the family for tea
when Home Secretary, during visits to watch Liverpool football club.

But it is the Haase and Bennett decision that is likely to cause
Howard the most political embarrassment. The pair were arrested in
July 1993 after the discovery of 55kg of heroin with a street value of
around ?18m.

Haase and Bennett ran the 'Turkish Connection', a smuggling network in
which heroin was brought from Turkey to Liverpool over four years.
Haase and his associates ran parts of the city like a private fiefdom,
running protection rackets and clubs.

The two men were convicted in February 1995; their release sparked
outrage. Two local MPs, David Alton and George Howarth, raised the
matter by letter at the time. In his reply, Howard wrote: 'I can
neither reveal, not overstate the risks which would flow from
revealing, any of the details which confidentially had been placed
before him [the judge] by the prosecuting authorities, save to say
that the information had proved to offer quite enormous and unique
assistance to the law enforcement agencies.'

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: 'Drug
barons are some of the most evil criminals we have in this country. I
find it hard to imagine what justification there could be for
releasing them so early. Mr Howard should explain this remarkable decision.'

Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said Howard owed
Merseyside an explanation: 'Howard professes to be a hardliner and yet
he gained a royal pardon for hardened criminals, who returned to
serious crime.'

A spokesman for Howard said he had no further comment about Haase and
Bennett or Bakerman.

At the time of the release, Howard also used his influence to close
down criticism about the case. The Home Office asked news
organisations, including The Observer, to suppress news of the Haase
and Bennett release, which was described as 'unique'.

Howard called Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle, just before he was about to do
an interview with Sky News, and asked him not to comment on the
matter, as the drugs dealers had provided 'significant information'
and exposure would 'imperil their lives'.

Kilfoyle has spent several years building up a dossier on the case.
'There is deep concern that Customs and Excise has been gravely misled
by two practised liars - Haase and Bennett. The evidence is there for
all to see,' he said during a Commons debate in 2001.

It has been suggested that MI5, operating under the umbrella of the
Home Office, recommended the release of Haase and Bennett, who had led
MI5 to major players in the drugs import business.