David Miranda detention 'unlawful'

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 22 Agustus 2013 | 19.12

22 August 2013 Last updated at 08:09 ET
Glenn Greenwald and David Miranda

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David Miranda's lawyers are at the High Court

Lawyers seeking an injunction to stop access to material seized from a Brazilian man held at Heathrow airport have argued his detention was unlawful.

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

The judicial review proceedings involve the Home Office and the police.

A lawyer for the police said they were launching a criminal investigation after examining some of the material.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC did not give any details about the investigation but said the material "contains in the view of the police highly sensitive material, the disclosure of which would be gravely injurious to public safety".

He said the police are "partway" through examining "tens of thousands of pages" of digital material.

"There is an absolutely compelling reason to permit this investigation to continue," he added.

'Careful consideration'

Mr Miranda, 28, was detained for nine hours at the airport under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The Brazilian national, 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.

Prior to the court hearing, Mr Miranda's lawyers said he had had nine items, including his laptop, mobile phone and DVDs, seized during the detention.

By law, the police would have to hand back Mr Miranda's possessions within seven days.

Matthew Ryder QC, who is representing Mr Miranda, told the High Court on Thursday they were seeking a 14-day freeze on the inspection of Mr Miranda's phone and computer.

He also called for police to reveal with whom they may have shared information taken from Mr Miranda.

Mr Ryder told Lord Justice Beatson and Mr Justice Kenneth Parker that Mr Miranda was questioned and property in his possession was seized "under threat of criminal prosecution in a coercive use of schedule 7 which was unlawful".

Gwendolen Morgan, of Bindman Partners, argued in a statement that the decision to use the law "amounted to a grave and manifestly disproportionate interference" with Mr Miranda's human rights, and was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Ms Morgan said: "The purpose of these proceedings is to protect the confidentiality of the sensitive journalistic material that was seized from the claimant.

"Confidentiality, once lost, can clearly never be restored."

She also urged the judges to order a full judicial review to take place within two weeks, and for the injunction to run for the interim period.

Home Secretary Theresa May believed it was necessary to examine the documents "without delay in the interests of national security", the court heard.

Steven Kovats QC said the home secretary had given "careful consideration" to Mr Miranda's requests and had offered "more narrowly defined" undertakings which the court should accept.

But he said: "Material taken from the claimant includes material the unauthorised disclosure of which would endanger national security of the UK and put lives at risk."

It was "necessary for the national security of the UK" for the government and its agencies "to be free to have access to that data and examine it without delay", Mr Kovats said.

Mr Kovats said it was clearly not the copies of the data obtained from Mr Miranda that the secretary of state was worried about but the possession by others of the same information.

'Isolated incident'

Meanwhile, the secretary general of the European human rights watchdog the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, warned the Home Office the detention of Mr Miranda "may have a potentially chilling effect on journalists' freedom of expression".

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding tweeted: "I fully share Mr Jagland's concerns."

Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said his country was waiting for an explanation from Britain, but believed "this was an isolated incident and won't happen again".

On Wednesday, Mrs May defended the police's use of anti-terrorism laws, insisting such action "was right" if police thought Mr Miranda was holding information useful to terrorists.

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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