The former MPs' aide accused of being a Russian spy has admitted to a four year affair with Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock according to reports.
The news came out on the first day of Katia Zatuliveter's appeal against deportation. In September the former head of MI5 was chosen to sit on a panel that will decide the fate of Zatuliveter, who has been accused of spying for Russia.
Stephen Lander will join two judges to decide whether 26-year-old Russian national Katia Zatuliveter should be deported from Britain following allegations by British intelligence that she used her position as an aide to Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock to spy for the Kremlin.
She has denied spying but admitted to the affair, saying: “I didn’t know about his private life until recently. I thought he was divorced and only found out he was married in 2010.”
Zatuliveter is appealing the move to expel her to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
SIAC deals with appeals against decisions made by the Home Office to deport, or exclude, someone from the UK on national security grounds.