Calling Time On The Use Of Secret Evidence In The UK 10.12.09 On December 1, two High Court judges, Lord Justice Laws and Mr. Justice Owen, dealt what looked like the final blows to the British government's policies of imprisoning terror suspects without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence -- or otherwise depriving them of their liberty under a form of house arrest (also on the basis of secret evidence) -- which have existed, in various forms, since December 2001, when a number of men were seized and held for three years in Belmarsh prison. On Monday, however, in the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which functions as Britain's "terror court," these hopes were dashed when Mr. Justice Mitting refused to reinstate the bail of an Algerian prisoner, who is imprisoned facing deportation, even though his bail was revoked in March on the basis of secret evidence. A brief history of control orders and deportation bail To recap, the Law Lords brought the initial regime of imprisonment without charge or trial to an end in December 2004, ruling that the detention of the 17 men held in Belmarsh during this three-year period infringed their right to liberty under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights , which guarantees "the lawful detention of a person after conviction by a competent court." The government responded not by releasing the men -- or, as critics had requested ( PDF ), by putting them on trial and arranging for