The Associated Press
Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2001; 4:04 p.m. EST

LONDON –– The memoirs of a former spy were released for the first time in Britain after a failed attempt to stop their publication.

More than 1,500 copies of the book – "The Big Breach: From Top Secret to Maximum Security," authored by Richard Tomlinson, an ex-agent for the MI6 intelligence agency – have been brought into Britain from Russia by an online information company called 192.com, the company said.

Tomlinson, who worked for MI6 between 1991 to 1995, was jailed in 1997 for six months for breaching the Official Secrets Act. He now lives in Italy.

British authorities had already attempted to stop serialization of Tomlinson's memoir in The Sunday Times, arguing that it could harm national security. But last week, a British appeals court ruled once the book was in the public domain, it could be made available in Britain.

In addition to being published in Russia and excerpted in The Sunday Times, parts of the manuscript have appeared on the Internet and in a Russian newspaper.

Nuala Whelan, sales and marketing director for 192.com, said the company was seeking to promote freedom of information. Previously, the company has been criticized by privacy advocates for making it possible to find the home address of anyone registered to vote in Britain.

A prominent Soviet defector, Oleg Gordievsky, a former high-ranking KGB officer, has suggested Russian authorities had doctored the manuscript. 192.com said it could not vouch for the authenticity of the manuscript.

Some civil rights groups applauded the move to make the book available.

"It can't be right for the Russian people to be able to read about the escapades of the MI6, but for the people of this country, whose taxes pay for the MI6, to be unable to read the same information," said John Wadham of the civil rights group Liberty.