Polly Peck lawyers fear for their safety

LAWYERS acting in the Polly Peck administration abroad are becoming caught up in the escalating violence facing British professionals on the case.

Joint administrators Coopers & Lybrand, Turkish authorities and the British embassy in Istanbul are to step up security after a Coopers employee was shot earlier this month.

A partner at the accountancy firm was also beaten up. He is now back in the UK and may not return.

Cameron Markby Hewitt partner David Kidd, head of the legal team acting for Coopers on the Turkey and Northern Cyprus side of the case, says: "Obviously, everyone on the job has to take seriously threats made to anyone else involved."

Intimidation aimed at Turkish lawyers instructed by Cameron Markby Hewitt started with chickens' heads dropped through letter-boxes and reached a climax when a lawyer's house was fire bombed and his car blown up.

Kidd and a Coopers administrator were arrested by Turkish police. Their passports were confiscated following complaints allegedly made by Asil Nadir last year.

An Alsop Wilkinson legal team, acting for joint administrators Touche Ross on litigation matters, had their photographs and passport details published in a Turkish newspaper the day they arrived in the country two years ago.

Paul Gordon-Saker, head of litigation, declines to discuss revised measures "for security reasons."

Criminal charges against certain administrators will reach court in Turkey in October.