sparks Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 It seems centuries of open justice are about to change... Secret justice looks set to be a regular feature of British courts and tribunals when the intelligence services want to protect their sources of information. Civil courts, immigration panels and even coroner's inquests would go into secret session if the Government rules that hearing evidence in public could be a threat to national security. The proposals, which run counter to a centuries-old British tradition of open justice, were introduced to a sparsely attended House of Commons yesterday by the Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke – and met almost no opposition. The planned changes to the British justice system follow lobbying of the Government by the CIA. Civil rights groups warned a serious potential threat to individual liberty lurked behind the all-party consensus. No doubt these 'intelligence' services include the police (oxymoron alert!), or reports given to them, so if this is put in place then we would never get to hear about this: Police accused of allowing undercover officers to lie in court Police chiefs are facing damaging allegations that they authorised undercover officers embedded in protest groups to give false evidence in court in order to protect their undercover status. Documents seen by the Guardian suggest that an undercover officer concealed his true identity from a court when he was prosecuted alongside a group of protesters for occupying a government office during a demonstration. From the moment he was arrested, he gave a false name and occupation, maintaining this fiction throughout the entire prosecution, even when he gave evidence under oath to barristers. The officer, Jim Boyling, and his police handlers never revealed to the activists who stood alongside him in court that he was actually an undercover policeman who had penetrated their campaign months earlier under a fake identity. People will be jailed without seeing the evidence against them, and that evidence may well be a pack of lies... But then who's to know?.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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