Government plans for secret no-jury ‘pre-trial’ trials before ‘security cleared’ judges are ‘totally unacceptable’ Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn told News Line yesterday.
He added: ‘All courts ought to be independent and in public.’
The plans announced by the Home Office are part of the government’s ‘anti-terror’ measures.
Included in these planned measures will be Special Advocates who are also ‘security cleared’, while the accused will not be allowed to have sight or knowledge of any ‘sensitive’ evidence used against them.
Human rights lawyer Louise Christian told News Line: ‘It’s obviously completely unacceptable.
‘The crucial condition for criminal justice is that trials are done in public and the accused party must see the evidence against them and people must be charged and brought to trial quickly.’
Gita Parihar of Public Interest Lawyers said: ‘We are very concerned.
‘It’s a huge change from our hundreds of years old adversarial system of a prosecution and defence.
‘It’s transplanting the inquisitorial system where you have a judge investigating issues for themselves, as is used in France, to this country.
‘We are also concerned it is being done in a big rush. Such fundamental change should not be undertaken lightly.
‘You are looking at someone’s human rights.
‘We had special advocates in the existing system who resigned over the way the system was being used.’
Barrister Ian Macdonald QC, one of the special advocates who resigned last year over the system used against terror suspects being held indefinitely at Belmarsh high security prison, condemned the Home Office proposal.
He said: ‘It will, in fact, be a method of extending the detention of suspects for more than two weeks.’
Amnesty International UK Media Director Mike Blakemore said: ‘The government has a duty to bring to justice those responsible for the London bombings and to prevent any further attacks.
‘But it must do so fairly and within the law.
‘It must take care not to undermine the fundamental principles of our society – including the right to a fair trial.’
Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, said: ‘In common with the other proposals announced last Friday the details of this scheme remain unclear.
‘However, the thought of secret hearings where once again the accused will never hear the case against them fills me with dread.
‘We need to move away from the shadowy world of secret suspicions and return to charges, evidence and proof.
‘The involvement of a judge cannot sanitise an unfair process.’
A Law Society spokesperson said: ‘We recognise it is imperative to take effective action to stop terrorism in the UK.
‘The government needs to ensure it does this in a way which respects its human rights obligations to the maximum degree possible.
‘We will study the detail of the proposals with care.’
