Law Lords asked to ban torture evidence

timesonline: A controversial judgment endorsing the detention of terrorist suspects on evidence that may have been obtained under torture is being challenged at the House of Lords today.

By a two to one majority, appeal judges ruled in August last year that if the evidence was obtained by agents of another country with no involvement by the UK, it was usable and there was no obligation by the Goverment to inquire about its origins.

Lawyers acting for the original ten suspected terrorists involved in the case, who were held without charge or trial, said at the time that they would seek to challenge the judgment before the Law Lords. The men, most of whom were first held in 2001 at Belmarsh jail, challenged a ruling of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission that the Home Office had "sound material" to back up the decision that they were a threat to national security.

Their lawyers' argument that evidence obtained by alleged torture in United States camps should have been excluded by the SIAC was rejected by the Court of Appeal.

Ben Emmerson QC, representing eight of the detainees, had told the appeal judges that the use of evidence obtained under torture, even if it was true, was "morally repugnant" and "an affront to the public conscience". The men's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, described the judgment as "terrifying". "It shows that we have completely lost our way in this country legally and morally," she said. Read more