Belhadj and Security Service
MR JUSTICE BURTON
Approved Judgment
Mr Justice Burton (President) :
1.
This is the judgment of the Tribunal.
2.
The background to this judgment was the making of the declaration by the Tribunal
on 26 February 2015, in conjoined applications brought by Mr Abdel Hakim Belhadj
and Mr Khadija Saadi and their families (“the Belhadj Claimants”) and by Amnesty
International Limited (“Amnesty”), as follows:
“UPON the Respondents conceding that from January 2010,
the regime for the interception/obtaining, analysis, use,
disclosure and destruction of legally privileged material has
not been in accordance with the law for the purposes of Article
8(2) of the ECHR and was accordingly unlawful.
AND UPON the Security Service and GCHQ confirming that
they will work in the forthcoming weeks to review their policies
and procedures in the light of the draft Interception Code of
Practice and otherwise.
...
IT IS ORDERED THAT:
1.
3.
there be a declaration that since January 2010 the
regime for the interception/obtaining, analysis, use,
disclosure and destruction of legally privileged
material has contravened Article 8 ECHR and was
accordingly unlawful.”
The next step after that declaration was to follow the course set out in the balance of
the Order:
“3.
the factual issue as to whether the Claimants’ legally
privileged communications have in fact been
intercepted/obtained, analysed, used, disclosed or
retained (“relevant interception”) shall be considered
by the Tribunal in a CLOSED hearing.
4.
there will be an Open hearing to consider, on the
hypothetical assumption (the true position being
neither confirmed nor denied), that there has been
relevant interception, what if any remedies should be
granted to the Claimants, at 10.30 am on Thursday, 12
March 2015 in the Rolls Building in a court to be
notified.
5.
the Claimants shall serve and lodge written
submissions as to what remedies ought to be granted
to them on the hypothetical assumption (the true
position being neither confirmed nor denied) that there
has been relevant interception, by 12 noon on 3 March