Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

shelving the Gibson Inquiry and would hold a second judge-led inquiry at a later date once
the Libya criminal cases were resolved. 473
Regarding the right to redress, the United Kingdom settled the cases of fifteen former and
one current Guantanamo detainees, who sued over UK complicity in their rendition and
torture. The government initially fought the case but later settled, after a high court ruling
that confidential documents would have to be released in the court proceedings. 474 The
government admitted no liability along with the settlement.
The Belhadj and Saadi cases are also the subject of civil suits against former UK government
officials and the UK government itself. But a draft law introduced by the government
in May 2011, known as the Justice and Security bill, seeks to widen the use of secret
hearings in civil courts when national security grounds are invoked. This would mean that
applicants and their lawyers of choice would be excluded. Their interests would instead by
represented by a security-cleared lawyer who is barred from communicating with the
applicant about the secret evidence. Parliament is considering the bill at this writing. 475
473 Bowcott et al, “Gibson inquiry into MI5 and MI6 torture collusion claims abandoned,” Guardian.
474 Patrick Wintour, “Guantánamo Bay detainees to be paid compensation by UK government,” The Guardian, November 15,
2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/16/guantanamo-bay-compensation-claim (accessed June 30, 2012).
475 Benjamin Ward, “Secret ‘justice’ is nothing of the sort,” New Statesmen, June 16, 2012,
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/secret-justice-nothing-sort (accessed July 25, 2012).
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