Why Would This Be A Secret Trial?

[Booldawg]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27704747

The article says for 'reasons of national security'. Can anyone elaborate on this?!

[emmie]

perhaps to protect those who are involved, ie the security services or undercover officers, those who may have infiltrated any terror cells, no idea other than that.

[emmie]

and that the defendants are involved in more than one plot? so maybe there are other cases to consider, so secrecy at this stage could prevent other matters they may be involved in being reported on, or that they are high profile individuals. i don't like the idea of any court held in secret however, its not what our judicial system should be based upon, but until we know a little more what can one add.

[Gromit]

Because evidence at the trial my compromise sources or techniques of surveillance. If the exact way some of the information was rathered is revealed, future terrorists may modify their behaviour to avoid detection.

I am a little perturbed by the idea that we can send people to prison for life, but that the evidence is not open to scrutiny and therefore cannot be tested. Sounds like a recipe for appeals and won't do our international reputation any good. We can hardly complain about secret courts in North Korea, if we used the same practices.

[emmie]

they have said that the info would come out, if you read the piece, just not at this stage, so whoever these people are, are not going to be sent to prison without knowing the why and wherefores.

[Gromit]

Emmie,
When a verdict is reached and they are sentenced, we will learn of the plot but I do not think we will know how the verdict was arrived at. That is how totalitarian Governments deal with pesky disenters.

[youngmafbog]

Sometimes public safety has to come first. This idea does not sit well will the arrogant metropolitan liberal elite who prefer the perpetrator to have beter rights than the victim or potential victim.

I am not quite sure how you can compare this idea with North Korea. For starters no one is going to be marched out and shot because Dave or her maj say so.

[youngmafbog]

So is this an underhand way of suggesting the coalition are a totalitarian Governments and terrorists are pesky disenters.

I know you lean to the left but thats a bit rich.

[emmie]

i am not happy with any secret courts, especially where innocent people are locked away for their own safety!, those who are supposedly at risk of harm to themselves yet the evidence is not sufficient to suggest that they are.
wait and see would be the thing, what the courts decide.

[Gromit]

// In the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, Anthony Hudson, for the media groups, said the case was a “totally unprecedented departure from the principle of open justice” and required the judges’ “most anxious scrutiny”.

“We submit that the orders made mark such a significant departure from the principle of open justice that they are inconsistent with the rule of law and democratic accountability,” he said.

“As far as we are aware no order has ever been made that requires the entire criminal trial to be held in private, with the media excluded and defendants anonymous.”

He told the judges: “This appeal raises important issues relating to not only the constitutional principle of open justice but also the equally important principle of fairness and natural justice. //

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10876499/Secret-terror-trial-is-assault-on-British-justice.html

[jim360]

Presumably if we knew exactly why this was a secret trial it wouldn't be a secret any more.

[emmie]

i did read it, so no need to paste large chunks, however its not a done deal is it, not yet. they are deliberating as we type.

[Gromit]

Ymb,
// This idea does not sit well will the arrogant metropolitan liberal elite //

The Daily Mail, Express, Times and Sky are part of the legal challenge to this secret trial.

[emmie]

nor should it, however it hasn't been decided as yet.

[New Judge]

No I cannot elaborate on the decision.

However, I don't know what all the fuss is about. Trials are held in secret all over England and Wales every day of the week - in the Youth Courts. Almost all proceedings against people aged under 18 are held behind closed doors with only the participants and officers of the court allowed to be present. The press and public (including victims, except in very limited circumstances) are not allowed into court and no reports of the proceedings are permitted to be published by the media. Press reports today speak of an "assault on justice". Well to my mind a far greater assault on justice occurs in the youth courts every day where, for example, 17 year old repeat burglars can be dealt with in secret and nobody knows who they are or how they were dealt with. One case, albeit involving serious allegations, is small beer by comparison. I hope, emmie, that your dislike of secret justice (which I share wholeheartedly) extends to the Youth Courts.

[sandyRoe]

Weren't parts of trials of suspected Soviet agents once held in camera? That's going back a few years.