A British university lecturer who is alleged to have spied for the East German secret service, the Stasi, has been suspended from his post for eighteen months.

The lecturer, Dr Robin Pearson, was suspended after an investigation by Hull university in eastern England.

A BBC television documentary accused him of working for the Stasi from 1977 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Quoting Stasi files, the television documentary said Dr Pearson had passed on information about friends and colleagues who had gone to work for NATO or the ministry of defence.

It said he had also spied on Polish exiles.

The home secretary Jack Straw announced last year that he would not face prosecution.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service