McCANN AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT 30 Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary to postpone the programme until after the holding of the inquest into the deaths. L. Other evidence produced before the Commission and Court 1. Statement of Chief Inspector Valenzuela 126. While an invitation had been made by the Gibraltar police for a Spanish police officer to attend the inquest to give evidence relating to the role of the Spanish police, he did not attend, apparently since he did not receive permission from his superiors. 127. The Government provided the Commission with a copy of a statement made by Chief Inspector Rayo Valenzuela, a police officer in Malaga, dated 8 August 1988. According to this statement, the United Kingdom police had at the beginning of March provided the Spanish police with photographs of the possible members of the ASU, named as Daniel McCann, Mairead Farrell and Sean Savage. The three individuals were observed arriving at Malaga Airport on 4 March 1988 but trace of them was lost as they left. There was then a search to locate the three suspects during 5 to 6 March 1988. This statement provided by the Government was not included in the evidence submitted at the inquest, as the Coroner declined to admit it following the objection by Mr P.J. McGrory who considered that it constituted hearsay in the absence of any police officer from Spain giving evidence in person. 2. Statement of Mr Harry Debelius 128. This statement, dated 21 September 1988 and supplied on behalf of the applicants, was made by a journalist who acted as consultant to the makers of the Thames Television programme "Death on the Rock". He stated that the white Renault car used by the ASU was under surveillance by the Spanish authorities as it proceeded down the coast towards Gibraltar. Surveillance is alleged to have been conducted by four to five police cars which "leapfrogged" to avoid suspicion, by helicopter and by agents at fixed observation points. The details of the car’s movements were transmitted to the authorities in Gibraltar who were aware of the car’s arrival at the border. He refers to the source of this information as being Mr Augustín Valladolid, a spokesman for the Spanish Security Services in Madrid, with whom he and Mr Julian Manyon, a reporter for Thames Television, had an interview lasting from 18.00 to 19.20 hours on 21 March 1988. 129. The applicants intended submitting this statement as evidence before the inquest. The Coroner decided however that it should also be