By IRNA,
London : The High Court in London ruled Thursday that the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) attempts to cut off funding for important public interest cases concerning UK complicity in, and acts of, torture to be unlawful.
British peace campaigner and human rights activist Maya Evans, who brought the proceedings against the government’s legal aid changes introduced last year, said the court’s decision was a victory for the rule of law.
“In my previous case I had the opportunity to shine a light into the dark recesses of the UK’s torture policy in Afghanistan, to the benefit of hundreds of prisoners and, ultimately, the British public,” Evans said.
“I am thrilled that similar opportunities are now preserved for future concerned citizens as a result of this victory”, she said in a statement obtained by IRNA.
In the ruling, Lord Justice Laws condemned both the MoD and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which put in place the legal aid changes, saying the decision was “frankly inimical to the rule of law.”
“For the State to inhibit litigation by the denial of legal aid because the court’s judgement might be unwelcome or apparently damaging would constitute an attempt to influence the incidence of judicial decisions in the interests of government,” Laws said.
Laws also ruled that the MoJ consultation which preceded the change to legal aid rules was also unlawful due to its lack of transparency as to what the real reasons for the changes were.
During the case, the court heard damning evidence that the former defence secretary Bob Ainsworth personally intervened with Justice Ministers to ensure that torture cases were cut off at their source.
Solicitor for Evans, Daniel Carey of Public Interest Lawyers (PiL), said the cuts never were about saving money but about the “government’s attempts to avoid accountability by cutting off litigation at its source.
PiL has handled a litany of cases seeking justice for Iraqi and Afghan prisoners detained by British troops, while Evans is a leading member of Justice Not Vengeance (JNV), an anti-war group which opposes the US-UK ‘war on terrorism’.