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Belmarsh prison, Britain's Guantanamo (File photo)
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CAIRO,
December 20 (IslamOnline.net) – The crisis faced by the British
government over its refusal to implement the country’s highest
court's ruling deeming the anti-terror law illegal continued to deepen
with the resignation of some lawyers representing suspects detained
under the law, British papers reported Monday, December 20.
Ian
Macdonald, one of the “Special Advocates” appointed by the
government to represent terror suspects, announced his resignation
Sunday, December 18, two days after the
Law Lords ruled that the detention of nine foreigners under
the anti-terror law breached human rights obligations, reported The
Independent.
The
Law Lords, a panel of senior judges who act as the ultimate court of
appeal in Britain, gave the ruling after nine Muslim detainees held in
the British Belmarsh prison, dubbed as Britain's Guantanamo Bay,
challenged the Court of Appeal’s verdict on backing the Home
Office's measures to hold them without charges.
The
daily quoted Macdonald, who had been given security clearance to
represent detainees before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission
(SIAC), as saying he was resigning “out of conscience” because of
the “odious” nature of the emergency anti-terror laws rushed
through Parliament in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks.
His
departure, the paper said, is expected to be followed by other senior
counsels, who are known to be openly critical of the government and
its response to the perceived terror threat.
More
resignations will seriously undermine the legal system for reviewing
the detention of 11 foreign terror suspects held under the
Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, The Independent added.
Natalia
Garcia, a lawyer for one of the nine Muslim detainees told the paper,
he supports Macdonald's and hopes “he will not be the last.”
Senior
British parliamentarians admitted last August that anti-terrorism laws
are being used
“disproportionately” against Muslims.
Manipulation
Another
British daily, The Guardian, quoted Macdonald as saying, “I would be
surprised if I was the only one.”
According
the paper, Macdonald explained that “it was not just the law lords'
judgment last Thursday that detention without trial was unlawful which
had prompted his resignation, but the fact the government used the
special advocate's role as justification for arguing that detainees
were accorded civil rights.”
“If
enough other advocates follow suit and other barristers refuse to take
their places, the process under which the government has attempted to
give foreign terror suspects some limited rights to challenge their
detention in court could grind to a halt,” The Guardian said.
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