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.