A v Secretary of State for the Home Dept
| A v SS for Home Department | |
|---|---|
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| Court | House of Lords |
| Full case name | A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department; X and another v Secretary of State for the Home Department |
| Citation(s) | [2004] UKHL 56 |
| Keywords | |
| Indefinite detention, right to trial | |
A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] , (also known as the Belmarsh 9 case) UKHL 56 is a UK human rights case heard before the House of Lords. It held that the indefinite detention of foreign prisoners in Belmarsh without trial under the section 23 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case should not be confused with the case A v Secretary of State for the Home Department (No 2) [2005] UKHL 71, which relates to the use of evidence obtained by torture in British courts.
The case began with 9 men who challenged a decision of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission to eject them from the country on the basis that there was evidence that they threatened national security.
Of the 9 appellants, all except 2 were detained in December 2001; the others were detained in February and April 2002 respectively. All were detained under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. Part 4 of the Act provided for their indefinite detention without trial and deportation. However, the power was only applied to non-British nationals. Under section 25 of this Act, they had the right to appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission against their detention.
The House of Lords held by a majority (Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Scott of Foscote, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Baroness Hale of Richmond and Lord Carswell) that, whilst their detention was lawful under the ATCSA 2001, section 23 was incompatible with the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. As a consequence, the House of Lords made a declaration of incompatibility under section 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998, and allowed the appeals.
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