A and Others v HM Treasury (Application by Guardian News and Media Ltd and Others)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 27 January 2010 |
| Neutral Citation | [2010] UKSC 1 |
| Date | 27 January 2010 |
| Court | Supreme Court |
Before Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood and Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore
Supreme Court
Where individuals challenged anti-terrorism asset-freezing orders, the general public interest in publishing a report of the proceedings in which they were named justified curtailing their rights to private life.
The Supreme Court so held when granting an application to set aside anonymity orders by Guardian and Media News Ltd, Associated Press, Times Newspapers Ltd, Bloomberg News, Index on Censorship and Dow Jones and Company, Inc, dated September 28, 2009, on the hearing of appeals by the claimants, Moha mmed Jabar Ahmed, Mohammed Azmir Khan, Michael Marteen, formerly known as, Mohammed Tunveer Ahmed, Mohammed al-Ghabra and Haini El Sayed Sabaei Youssef, in proceedings against HM Treasury.
The claimants contended that the anonymity orders were necessary because identification would infringe their article 8 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing respect for their private life.
The first three claimants were brothers, designated under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order (SI 2006 No 2657) as persons whom the Treasury suspected of actually or potentially facilitating terrorist acts and in respect of whom asset-freezing orders were made. When those were challenged, Mr Justice CollinsTLRUNK (The Times May 5, 2008; [2008] 3 All ER 361) made anonymity orders which were continued by the Court of AppealTLRWLR (The Times November 12, 2008; [2009] 3 WLR 25).
Mr al-Ghabra, also so designated, was named in a Bank of England press notice publicising the Treasury's asset-freezing direction against him. He was subsequently added to the consolidated list by the United Nations Security Council sanctions committee as a person associated with al-Qaeda and so be came a designated person under the al-Qaeda and Taleban (United Nations Measures) Order (SI 2006 No 2952). In view of the press notice, the application in respect of him was granted at the outset of the hearing of the substantive appeals.
Mr Youssef was also added to the consolidated list and was the subject of a Treasury direction under the al-Qaeda Order which the Bank of England also publicised. In view of that publication, the Supreme Court, on hearing the...
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