April 18, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1429

DUBLIN, April 17: Ireland has stopped paying an Irish diplomat who was expelled from Afghanistan for posing a threat to national security, according to documents cited by the RTE state broadcaster on Thursday.

Irish national Michael Semple was the second most senior European Union official in Afghanistan when he was expelled from the violence-scarred country in December, along with a top UN political advisor.

Semple received around $16,000 a month from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs for his work in the country, according to documents released to RTE under freedom of information legislation.

But Dublin cut off the funding in the days after his expulsion, with one official claiming he may have made an “error of judgement,” according to the documents.

In a telephone interview with RTE from Pakistan, Semple denied he was a spy. “No, I am not a spy, never have been a spy. I have had chuckle at some of the Lawrence of Arabia descriptions. I am not a Lawrence of Arabia either.

“The work which I have been doing is something which I and various other colleagues do which is basically trying to maintain contacts at all levels of Afghan society so we can understand what is going on in the country.” And he added: “There is a handful of us who speak the local languages ...”

Semple and Briton Mervyn Patterson flew out of Kabul after being declared persona non grata on Dec 25, and given 48 hours to leave the country.—AFP