UK: Lords Anti-Terror Ruling: Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen Available For Comment

The Law Lords will give their judgement on whether the UK can lawfully intern the detainees held at Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons and Broadmoor High Security Hospital.

Amnesty International was granted leave to make written submissions to the Law Lords on this case. The organisation rarely intervenes in legal proceedings, particularly before national courts. It does so only when the case raises issues of central importance to the protection of human rights, and when the organisation considers that the particular expertise of Amnesty International might assist the Court. The organisation believes that this is such a case.

In its written submissions, Amnesty International invited the nine Law Lords to find that indefinite detention under Part 4 of the ATCSA is criminal for all intents and purposes: that it violates the most fundamental fair trial rights guaranteed in international standards, including treaty provisions by which the UK is bound.