UK: Terror suspects win UK court ruling on secret evidence

London, (IRNA): Two men suspected of terrorism-related activities won a landmark court ruling Tuesday against the government’s use of secret evidence to deny them bail.

Judges at the High Court in London ruled that a person could not be denied bail solely on the basis of secret evidence. Applications should be treated the same as control order cases, where terror suspects must be given sufficient material to enable them to answer the case against them.
The judgement was hailed by human rights lawyers as a "historic" but Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he was "surprised and disappointed" by the court decision and will seek to appeal against it.
The ruling was won by a Pakistani student facing deportation from the UK, who was refused bail on the basis of secret evidence, and an Algerian national, known as "U", whose bail was revoked.

Human rights solicitor Gareth Peirce welcomed the court's "resounding no" to the idea that individuals could be detained on the basis of secret evidence, without recourse to apply to the high court for judicial review.

"The judges said there is an absolute, irreducible minimum of information that an individual should have," said Pierce, who has been involved in many high-profile terrorist cases.

Liberty civil rights group said it took a senior judge to point out what most people already know, that “if the government is going to lock you up, it needs to tell you why."

Last month, a petition was launched on Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s website to end the use of secret evidence against terrorist suspects and others on the grounds of national security to ensure that everyone in the UK has the right to a fair trial.

The issue has also been raised in an Early Day Motion to parliament earlier this year, which was signed by over 90 MPs, describing the use of secret evidence in UK courts as “fundamentally wrong.”

In June, Law Lords ruled that use of secret evidence to support imposition of control orders to restrict a suspect’s movements was unfair and led to Johnson ordering the release of a suspect from such an order as he did not want to disclose secret intelligence.

The European Court of Human Rights has also ruled that detaining individuals on the basis of secret evidence is unlawful because detainees had not been able to effectively challenge the allegations against them.