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| Friday, 13 August 2004 |
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Terror suspects in Britain lose court bid for freedom Britain, Thursday (AFP) Britain's government received a boost for its controversial policy of detaining foreign terrorism suspects without trial Wednesday, when a court rejected an attempt by 10 detainees to win freedom. The High Court in London turned down an appeal by lawyers acting for the 10 men against a ruling that Home Secretary David Blunkett had acted properly in deciding they were a risk to national security, and thus should be detained. The ruling was made by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, or SIAC, a secretive legal tribunal which decides on the status of foreign nationals facing detention or deportation on the grounds of national security. The men's lawyers had argued it was wrong to hold them under evidence which might have been gathered using torture or ill-treatment at US detention centres such as Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. However in a lengthy written ruling, a trio of judges turned down the appeal against the SIAC decision. If it had been successful, the men's lawyers could have asked for SIAC to reconsider the cases. The verdict was welcomed by Blunkett, who said in a statement that it would be "irresponsible" to ignore any intelligence about terrorism. But a lawyer for the men, leading human rights activist Gareth Peirce, described the judgment as "terrifying". "It shows that we have completely lost our way in this country legally and morally," she said. Rights group Amnesty International said it was "appalled". "The rule of law and human rights have become casualties of the measures taken in the aftermath of September 11. This judgement is an aberration, morally and legally," it said in a statement. "This is a dramatic rollback in fundamental rights," added Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch, in a statement released by the Washington-based pressure group. "The global ban on torture is absolute," she said. "Britain should be a leader in upholding that principle rather than looking for ways around it." The 10, most of whom have been detained for more than two and a half years, have been held under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, passed soon after the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001. It allows foreigners to be jailed indefinitely without charge or trial if the home secretary rules they are suspected of involvement in international terrorism, and they opt not to leave the country. Two of the 10 have already chosen to leave Britain rather than stay in detention, one to Morocco and another to France, although their cases were still under consideration.
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