 Brooke and his wife Barbara were arrested on 25 April by KGB agents for smuggling anti-Soviet leaflets.Barbara was later released and returned to Britain, but Gerald was sentenced to five years' detention, including four years in labour camps, for "subversive anti-Soviet activity on the territory of the Soviet Union".Brooke lived in Finchley in northwest London and his case was raised in the House of Commons by local MP Margaret Thatcher.