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Detainees' QC quits citing 'odious law'
Pressure grows on new Home
Secretary to release 11 men the House of Lords says are being held
behind bars illegally
A leading QC appointed
by ministers to act in secret court hearings for terror suspects is
quitting in disgust, describing the law allowing foreigners to be
detained indefinitely as "an odious blot on our legal landscape".
Ian Macdonald, a Special Advocate before the Special Immigration
Appeals Commission (SIAC), is to resign tomorrow from his role
defending the suspects. He says the Government's anti-terror
legislation, which has kept the suspects in prison without trail for
up to three years, is "contrary to our deepest notions of justice".
His decision to step down increases the pressure on ministers to
release the 10 Arab and North African men currently held. Last week
the House of Lords declared that their detention was illegal.
The The Independent on Sunday has learnt that the men's cases are
expected to be reviewed next month by a special tribunal chaired by
a High Court judge, Lord Justice Ouseley.
But one of the best-known of the detainees, a Palestinian refugee
called Abu Rideh, who is now in Broadmoor high-security hospital,
could be released on bail long before that hearing.
By coincidence, his bid for release was heard on Thursday and Friday
by Lord Ouseley's tribunal last week, a hearing which was
immediately overshadowed by the Law Lords' damning criticisms of the
anti-terrorism powers enacted almost exactly three years ago.
The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, introduced by David
Blunkett, the then home secretary, in the aftermath of the 11
September 2001 attacks on the US allowed him summarily to arrest and
imprison alleged supporters of al-Qa'ida using secret intelligence
reports that have never been disclosed. The lawyers for the 11 men
still in detention, who are spread between Belmarsh high-security
prison in south-east London, Broadmoor secure hospital and Woodhill
prison near Milton Keynes,
are now to press for their urgent release.
Gareth Peirce, the lawyer for most of the detainees, said: "The
president of SIAC, Lord Ouseley, indicated that those bail
applications scheduled for the end of January might constitute an
opportunity to look at the implications of the Lords' judgment on
bail in a more extended way."
However, the men may only be released under extremely strict bail
conditions. Earlier this year, one mentally ill detainee, known only
as "G", was allowed home under conditions described as "house
arrest" by Ms Peirce. The bail agreement requires G to be tagged,
bans any visits by friends or relatives, bars him from using his
garden, a computer or making phone calls, and very heavily restricts
his right to leave home.
David Pannick QC, one of Britain's most senior barristers, said
yesterday that unless Charles Clarke, the new Home Secretary, takes
decisive action on the cases within weeks, the UK could be taken to
the European Court of Human Rights.
Source: The Independent
19 December
2004
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