Intelligence agencies spying on lawyers

Friday 7th November 2014

Documents disclosed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal reveal intelligence services have routinely been intercepting legally confidential lawyer-to-client communications. Policy papers held by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ were released after a claim brought on behalf of Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Sami al-Saadi, who were kidnapped along with members of their family and sent to Libya in 2004 where they were tortured. Mr Belhaj last week won a Court of Appeal ruling allowing him to sue the Government for his rendition to Libya in a joint CIA-MI6 operation in 2004. In a separate case. they allege that by intercepting their privileged communications with the charity Reprieve and Leigh Day, the government has infringed their right to a fair trial. Richard Stein, a partner at Leigh Day who represents the Belhaj family, said: “We hope the tribunal will tell the government in no uncertain terms that this conduct is completely unacceptable." Dinah Rose QC, for Belhaj, added: "There's a real risk, if these matters are not fully explored, that confidence in our justice system could be undermined. These policies raise a strong prima facie case that there's been abuse of process and that real injustices may have been done.”

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