The Government's emergency anti-terror measures were left in tatters today after the Law Lords ruled that indefinite detention without trial contravened
human rights laws.
Nine foreigners detained indefinitely without charge or trial under Britain's emergency anti-terror laws delivered a further humiliation to former Home Secretary David Blunkett.
Main events in the row over the legislation are:
2001
October 15
- David Blunkett unveils his tough new measures in the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (ATCSA), just over a month after the September 11 atrocities. Admitting it will be necessary to opt out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights to detain people without trial, he insists the measures would "protect and enhance our rights, not diminish them".
December 14
- The ATCSA receives Royal Assent.
December 19
- Eight suspected international terrorists are detained in London, Luton and Birmingham after Mr Blunkett approves their "certification" under the Act. The eight are Djamel Ajouaou, Abu Rideh and the un-named men A, C, D, E, F and G.
Detainee Ajouaou voluntarily leaves the UK, as allowed under the legislation. He flies to his homeland of Morocco.
2002
February 5
- Suspect B is certificated and detained.
March 12
- Detainee F voluntarily leaves the UK, as allowed under the legislation. Accompanied by two police officers, the Algerian travels to France where authorities allow him to stay.
April 22
- Suspects H and I are certificated and detained.
July 30
- The judicial body which hears appeals from those detained under the Act, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), rules the law is "not only discriminatory and so unlawful... but also it is disproportionate". The ATCSA was unfair because it allowed the internment only of foreign nationals, the commission says.
October 23
- Suspect Abu Qatada certificated.
October 25
- The Court of Appeal allows an appeal by the Home Secretary over the SIAC ruling. The Government is entitled to conclude there is a public emergency threatening Britain and the detentions were not unjustifiably discriminatory, appeal judges say.
November 23
- Suspect M is certificated and detained.
2003
January 15
- Suspects P and Q are certificated and detained.
February 12
- The Government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism laws, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC, backs Mr Blunkett's use of the powers as "appropriate". But he recommends the suspects should be kept in a prison unit separate from convicted prisoners and allowed more "internal freedom" within jail.
August 7
- Suspect S is certificated and detained.
October 2
- Suspect K is certificated and detained.
October 29
- SIAC delivers its first rulings on individual detainees, upholding the Home Secretary's decision in all 10 it had considered.
December 18
- An influential committee of Privy Counsellors, set up by Mr Blunkett and chaired by Lord Newton of Braintree, is highly critical of the ATCSA's detention powers and insists they should be replaced "as a matter of
urgency".
2004
February 26
- Announcing plans for new anti-terror legislation, Mr Blunkett says his controversial internment powers will remain an "essential component" of the Government's measures.
March 18
- Detainee M is freed from prison after Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf upholds a SIAC ruling that his detention was unjustified and based on evidence that was "wholly unreliable and should not have been used". The 37-year-old Libyan is the first to successfully challenge his detention, following 16 months at Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London.
April 22
- Detainee G is granted bail after SIAC rule that the 35-year-old Algerian can be held under effective house arrest due to mental illness. Mr Blunkett condemns the decision as "extraordinary", adding that others would consider it "bonkers".
August 4 - Parliament's all-party Joint Committee on Human Rights calls for an alternative to be found to the ATCSA's internment powers, condemning the law's "corrosive effect" on human rights. Reforms should instead allow more suspected terrorists to be charged and face trial rather than remain in legal limbo, members say.
September 20
- Detainee D is freed from Belmarsh jail on the order of the Home Secretary. The Home Office declines to explain why the Algerian has been released after nearly three years in detention.
October 4
- Appellate Committee of the House of Lords begins to hear an appeal by nine of the detainees, who hope to overturn the Court of Appeal ruling from October 2002.
December 16
- Law Lords rule by eight to one in favour of the detainees. Lord Bingham said the anti-terrorism law was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights because it was disproportionate and discriminated against foreign nationals.
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