Belmarsh, control orders, deportation and extradition

Tomorrow (March 1), Parliament will vote on whether to renew the government’s control order regime, a form of house arrest for alleged terrorist suspects, who are held without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence. This lamentable system was established in haste in 2005, when the Law Lords ruled that the government’s previous […]

Since last June, when, in the wake of a significant ruling in the European Court of Human Rights, the Law Lords ruled that imposing control orders breaches Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial, the system established in haste and paranoia in early 2005 has […]

On February 3, 2010, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, comprising members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, met to hear oral evidence on “Counter-Terrorism Policy and Human Rights: Control Orders” from two solicitors representing control order detainees, and three Special Advocates representing the detainees during discussions of secret evidence in […]

On February 3, 2010, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, comprising members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, met to hear oral evidence on “Counter-Terrorism Policy and Human Rights: Control Orders” from two solicitors representing control order detainees, and three Special Advocates representing the detainees during discussions of secret evidence in […]

The news that Ziyad Ali Hashem, a control order detainee in the UK (previously identified only as DD) has had his control order lifted elicits two particular responses from those who have been aware of his case since he was first deprived of his liberty in November 2005: firstly, relief that his ordeal is at […]

For the Guardian’s Comment is free, “Compensation for control orders is a distraction” is an article I wrote examining yesterday’s High Court ruling, in which a judge quashed two control orders — a form of house arrest in operation since March 2005 — and indicated that the men affected, who had been subjected to the […]

On December 1, two High Court judges, Lord Justice Laws and Mr. Justice Owen, dealt what looked like the final blows to the British government’s policies of imprisoning terror suspects without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence — or otherwise depriving them of their liberty under a form of house arrest (also […]

The man identified in legal proceedings in the UK as Detainee U is a 46-year old Algerian, who, as two High Court judges explained on December 1, “has been continuously in custody since March 2001,” held without charge or trial, on the basis of secret evidence, “save for a period from July 2008 until February […]

For the Guardian’s Comment is free, “The end of secret evidence?” is an article I wrote celebrating what appears to be the demise of the British government’s eight-year policy of imprisoning terror suspects — both foreign and British nationals — without charge or trial, or otherwise depriving them of their liberty under a form of […]

Those of us who have been aware that the principles of open justice in the UK are being threatened in an unprecedented manner have, to date, focused largely on the use of secret evidence in cases related to terrorism — widely ignored by the general public, and by much of the media — and on […]