LONDON, 17 December 2004 — A key but controversial plank of Britain’s post-Sept. 11 security policy was thrown into disarray as the country’s highest court ruled that detaining terror suspects indefinitely without trial violated human rights laws.
A specially convened panel of nine Law Lords decided by 8-1 that the jailing of nine people on suspicion alone went against both democratic norms and international obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
One of the senior judges on the panel issued a particularly scathing denunciation of government policy, saying in a personal ruling that the real threat to Britain “comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these”.
Although it does not mean the men have to be released, the decision is a serious blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair just hours after Home Secretary David Blunkett — architect of the measure — resigned following a personal scandal. It also brings a terrible first day at work for Charles Clarke, the former education minister who has replaced Blunkett, who must now urgently repair a gaping hole in the government’s anti-terrorism policy.
Human rights groups who have labeled Belmarsh Prison in southeast London, where the bulk of the detainees have been held for up to three years, “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay”, were meanwhile celebrating a major victory.
The ruling does not overturn the law under which the men are held, the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act. However the government will now have to return to parliament and amend the legislation to take into account the Law Lords’ views.
Giving the decision in the House of Lords, Britain’s upper house of parliament, Lord Thomas Bingham said the law “discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status”.
It was thus incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, which was adopted into British law in 1998.
The most outspoken ruling came from Lord Leonard Hoffman, who dismissed government arguments that the detention was needed to protect Britain.
“The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these,” he said.
“That is the true measure of what terrorism may achieve. It is for parliament to decide whether to give the terrorists such a victory.”
Lawyers acting on behalf of the nine foreign nationals have challenged their detention a series of times, finally arguing their case in October in front of the Law Lords, a group of senior judges who sit in the House of Lords and also act as the country’s highest legal power.
According to rights groups, up to 14 foreign nationals are being held in prison or secure hospitals under the 2001 act, although only nine were involved in this test case.
