Blair and his crowd have been struggling a lot lately and now this. A group of eight detainees being held as foreign terrorist suspects sued last year claiming that they were being imprisoned because of "evidence" which was gathered under torture outside of the UK. The British lower Court of Appeals ruled against the group but the decision yesterday by the law lords delivered severe criticism of the previous ruling.
In a landmark ruling, they demanded that the detention of eight foreign terrorist suspects should be re-examined by the secret anti-terror courts in case the crucial evidence against them had been extracted by torture.It seems like both the UK and US governments don't grasp the idea of what "rule of law" means. Either we are nations based on laws or we're not.
Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the former Lord Chief Justice, who headed the panel of law lords, said the English law had regarded "torture and its fruits" with abhorrence for more than 500 years.
He said he was "startled, even a little dismayed" that "this deeply rooted tradition and an international obligation solemnly and explicitly undertaken" could be overriden by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which oversees the detention of terror suspects.
Lord Hoffmann, a fellow law lord, said the use of torture corrupted and degraded the state that used it and the legal system that accepted it. In a reference to Guantanamo Bay, he said that many Americans have felt their country "dishonoured" by its use of torture outside its own jurisdiction and the practice of moving suspects to countries where torture is practised.
