Unease at plans to allow secret trials
Last updated on 4th September 2008 at 12:23 am |
Under a clause in the new Counter-Terrorism Bill, inquests that are deemed to be a risk to national security may be held in secret. The Bill allows the Home Secretary to stop a jury being summoned, replace the coroner with a government appointee and bar the public from inquests if it is deemed to be in the public interest.
The move is seen as representing a fundamental breach of the right to a public inquiry into a death – a centuries-old mainstay of British justice. The Bill comes before the House of Lords this autumn.
Source: Times Online
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