Posted on 07/30/2002 2:32:18 PM PDT by blam
Terror suspects win appeal against detention
By David Barrett and Tim Ross, PA News
30 July 2002
The Government's anti–terrorism legislation suffered a serious blow today as nine alleged international terrorists won an appeal against their imprisonment without trial.
The suspects, who were arrested under Home Secretary David Blunkett's emergency powers introduced in the wake of 11 September, persuaded the Special Immigration Appeals Commission their detention was unlawful.
Committee chairman Mr Justice Collins said the Government's Anti–Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, which was rushed through in December, was "not only discriminatory and so unlawful ... But also it is disproportionate".
The law was unfair because it allowed the detention of foreign nationals only, even though British citizens may have been equally involved with al Qaida or other terrorist organisations, he said.
It therefore breached the European Convention on Human Rights, the Commission said.
Today's ruling was unlikely to lead to the immediate release of the nine, who have been held in south east London's high security Belmarsh prison.
The chairman said the Act was discriminatory because the Government had not opted out of Article 14 of the Convention, but he noted that their ruling "may be of little if any assistance" to the nine men if Parliament chose to pass legislation to deal with the discrimination.
The Government had been correct to state that there was a "public emergency threatening the life of the nation", said the panel.
But it added: "We have decided that the 2001 Act, which is the measure derogating from the obligations under the Convention, to the extent that it permits only the detention of foreign suspected international terrorists is not compatible with the Convention."
Lawyers for the nine argued earlier this month that the Act created a series of "bizarre, irrational and extraordinary" situations in which detainees were deprived of their legal and human rights.
It was the first time that the specially–appointed panel had examined the legality of the Act.
John Wadham, director of civil rights group Liberty, said: "This has always been a manifestly unjust and discriminatory power.
"The Government knows it cannot intern British citizens but thinks it acceptable to intern foreign nationals.
"The Human Rights Convention rightly ensures that this type of discrimination cannot be lawful.
"We do not see such a state of imminent and extreme national emergency as to justify locking people up without charge or trial, not for anything they have done but for something someone thinks they might do.
"The Home Office says there is but it refuses to tell either the people it is imprisoning or the general public why – that evidence was all confined to secret sessions.
"Our fight against these sweeping state powers will continue.
"The judgment means a core part of the Anti–Terrorism, Crime and Security Act is contrary to the Human Rights Convention.
"These suspects are being held in violation of their human rights; but their release is unlikely to be imminent."
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