14
A. AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
plotting to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas Market in December 2000. Abu
Doha was arrested in February 2001, following an extradition request from
the United States of America, but his group remained active.
27. The applicants appealed against SIAC’s ruling that evidence which
might have been obtained by torture was admissible. For the purposes of the
appeal, the parties agreed that the proceedings before SIAC to challenge
certification fell within Article 5 § 4 of the Convention and as such had to
satisfy the basic requirements of a fair trial. It was not, therefore, necessary
to decide whether Article 6 also applied and the issue was left open.
On 11 August 2004 the Court of Appeal, by a majority, upheld SIAC’s
decision ([2004] EWCA Civ 1123).
On 8 December 2005 the House of Lords held unanimously that the
evidence of a suspect or witness which had been obtained by torture had
long been regarded as inherently unreliable, unfair, offensive to ordinary
standards of humanity and decency and incompatible with the principles on
which courts should administer justice. It followed that such evidence might
not lawfully be admitted against a party to proceedings in a United
Kingdom court, irrespective of where, by whom and on whose authority the
torture had been inflicted. Since the person challenging certification had
only limited access to the material advanced against him in the proceedings
before SIAC, he could not be expected to do more than raise a plausible
reason that material might have been so obtained and it was then for SIAC
to initiate the relevant enquiries. The House of Lords therefore allowed the
applicants’ appeals and remitted each case to SIAC for reconsideration
([2005] UKHL 71).
28. SIAC’s conclusions as regards each applicant’s case are set out in
paragraphs 29-69 below. Of the sixteen individuals, including the eleven
applicants, detained under Part 4 of the 2001 Act, one had his certificate
cancelled by SIAC.
D. The certification proceedings: the individual determinations
1. The first applicant
29. The first applicant was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan,
is stateless, and was granted indefinite leave to remain in the United
Kingdom in 1997. On 17 December 2001 the first applicant was certified by
the Secretary of State as a suspected international terrorist under section 21
of the 2001 Act. On 18 December 2001 a deportation order was made on the
same grounds.
30. The first applicant was taken into detention on 19 December 2001.
He subsequently appealed to SIAC against certification and the decision to
make a deportation order. On 24 July 2002 he was transferred to Broadmoor
Secure Mental Hospital.