United Kingdom: Proceedings amount to a perversion of justice

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR450252003?open&of=ENG-GBR

PRESS RELEASE
News Flash

AI Index: EUR 45/025/2003 (Public)
News Service No: 248
29 October 2003

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The proceedings under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA) amount to a perversion of justice, Amnesty International said today.

The Special Immigration Appeal Commission (SIAC) today handed down judgments on ten foreign nationals, eight of whom have been detained under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA) for more than 20 months. Two have "voluntarily" left the United Kingdom (UK) since their initial arrest.

As a result of the SIAC judgments, the eight could remain in detention indefinitely, without charge or trial, principally on the basis of secret evidence which they have never heard or seen, and which they were therefore unable to challenge.
...
Disconcertingly, the SIAC ruled that under the ATCSA the burden of proof that the Secretary of State has to meet to justify internment of the ten is not the criminal standard of "beyond reasonable doubt" but, instead, is even lower than that needed in a civil case.

"The shockingly low burden of proof, which the SIAC ruled that the Secretary of State had met, violates the right to the presumption of innocence to which anyone subject to criminal proceedings is entitled. Respect of the presumption of innocence is fundamental to fair criminal trials," said Amnesty International.

Furthermore, Amnesty International is alarmed that today's judgments by the SIAC may have relied on evidence extracted under torture. Some of the secret evidence relied upon by the Secretary of State reportedly includes statements which were obtained at Bagram airbase and elsewhere in American custody, where there have been serious allegations of torture. Under international law any statement that has been established to have been made as a result of torture is inadmissible.

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There's much more. Apparently there are two Patriot Acts and two Guantanamo Bays. Pathetic and criminal.

s_m

:

not nearly enough