The UK government closed the final day of the judicial review into Palestine Action by presenting secret evidence, hidden from both the group’s lawyers and the public, to justify its ban on the direct-action organisation.
Following brief open-court submissions from government lawyers on Tuesday, the court asked lawyers representing Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, as well as members of the public and journalists, to leave.
A portion of Tuesday’s hearing was held in closed session to allow the government to present material it says cannot be disclosed on national security grounds. It means that if Ammori loses her case based on the secret evidence, neither she nor her team will know what the government argued against her or Palestine Action.
Fuck me that’s Orwellian
You think that’s bad? (it is, though possibly it’s evidence linked to an ongoing investigation and they don’t want to tip off the suspects)
But Britain has had secret courts for a couple of decades now. Completely secret. We’ve no idea what’s going on, just that people are being convicted for presumed terrorism offences, and we don’t know what happens to them after. Complete media blackout apart from one article I’ll try and find…
Edit: found! https://www.vice.com/en/article/inside-britains-secret-courts-101/
I’d like to think this innovative new take on justice is completely unrelated to the Government’s intention to do away with juries.
Imagine a world where you can be arrested, tried in complete secret, then sentenced based on evidence that you yourself are not allowed to see.
Bleak stuff.