Thursday, 22 August 2013

David Miranda detention 'unlawful'

Source BBC News@ tienganhvui.com




The BBC's Danny Shaw says David Miranda's lawyers will go to the High Court on Thursday



Lawyers representing a Brazilian man detained at Heathrow airport have begun judicial review proceedings against the Home Office and the police.


David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, was held in connection with classified data leaked to the newspaper.


A High Court hearing has been scheduled for Thursday.


Lawyers will seek an injunction to stop access to sensitive material they say was seized from Mr Miranda.


'Irremediable prejudice'

Brazilian national Mr Miranda, 28, was detained for nine hours at Heathrow on Sunday under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.


Mr Miranda, who was travelling from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro where he lives with Mr Greenwald, said his interrogators threatened that he could go to prison if he did not co-operate.


The law allows police to hold someone for up to nine hours for questioning about whether they have been involved with acts of terrorism.


Mr Miranda's lawyers said he had nine items, including his laptop, mobile phone and DVDs, seized.


Law firm Bindmans said it had started legal proceedings to "protect the confidentiality of the sensitive journalistic material".


It said the judicial review application aimed to secure a temporary restriction to stop the authorities using the material.


Bindmans said in a statement: "If interim relief is not granted then the claimant is likely to suffer irremediable prejudice, as are the other journalistic sources whose confidential information is contained in the material seized by the defendants."


Waiting for explanation

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said Mr Miranda's lawyers want a court declaration that the Brazilian's detention was unlawful, and it would probably take some time for a hearing to be arranged.


In the mean time, they want to ensure that confidentiality is protected.


Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said his country would not take retaliatory action against the UK over the incident but was still waiting for an explanation from Britain.


He said Brazil's position was made based on the belief that "this was an isolated incident and won't happen again".


In a phone call with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, Mr Patriota said detaining Mr Miranda was "counterproductive and does not contribute to an international co-ordinated action".


Home Secretary Theresa May has defended the police's use of anti-terrorism laws to hold and question Mr Miranda.


She said such action "was right" if police thought Mr Miranda was holding information useful to terrorists.


Held to account

But former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said this was not what the powers were meant for.


Lord Carlisle, the government's former terrorism watchdog, said whoever made the decision to use the law must be held to account.


The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it was dealing with 45 other separate complaints about cases involving the anti-terror legislation used to detain Mr Miranda.


Mr Greenwald has been reporting on American and British surveillance programmes for the Guardian, based on leaks from whistle-blower Edward Snowden.


Mr Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency in the US, has been granted temporary asylum in Russia.





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