Abstract
Craig Murray, Britain’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan, has been portrayed in the media as a colourful and dotty rogue with a penchant for bars, girls, Range-Rovers and outrageous breaches of diplomatic protocol. In August 2003, he was confronted with a series of disciplinary charges by the Foreign Office, which he was not permitted to discuss with anyone, and instructed to resign. He refused and denied any allegations of wrongdoing. The allegations were reportedly dropped within weeks but not before Murray had had a breakdown and a pulmonary embolism that nearly killed him. He was finally removed from his post in October 2004. As an exercise in psychotherapy, he is now writing an autobiography so frank, he says, that it is unlikely ever to see the light of day: ‘mostly about sex and drinking’. Yet friends and supporters insist that he had his personal and professional life shredded for consistent, courageous criticism of US support for Uzbekistan’s ruthless and repressive regime, for highlighting its use of torture and bringing attention to the plight of its political and religious dissidents. IM