Muslim on way back from hajj unlawfully denied access to lawyer

Muslims are regularly stopped at airports under Schedule 7.

A Muslim detained by police at an airport on his way home from hajj has won a High Court declaration that he was unlawfully refused access to a solicitor before he was questioned under anti-terror laws.

A judge declared Abdelrazag Elosta underwent “45 minutes of unlawful questioning” and had been legally entitled to have a solicitor present to advise him during the interview.

Mr Elosta arrived at Heathrow airport on November 10 2012 and was stopped by Metropolitan Police officers for examination under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

A judge said the examining officers began to question Mr Elosta and he provided his name, address, phone number and passport details.

But he asked to speak to his solicitor in Birmingham before answering further questions.

The judge said Mr Elosta was permitted to speak to his solicitor on the phone, but not in private, as officers remained in the room and could hear what he said, though probably not what the solicitor said.

Police

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The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police now accepted that it was “inappropriate” for the officers to have heard what was said and apologised.

Allowing Mr Elosta’s application for judicial review, Mr Justice Bean declared at London’s High Court: “The examining officers had no power to question the claimant after he had requested the presence of a solicitor and prior to the solicitor’s arrival.”

The refusal to await the solicitor’s arrival before putting further questions to him was “in the circumstances of this case unlawful”.

But the judge said this did not make the actual detention unlawful.

On the question of Mr Elosta’s entitlement to damages, the judge said: “I do not consider that this is a proper case for an award of more than nominal damages.

“There is no evidence that the 45 minutes of unlawful questioning caused the claimant any loss, nor indeed any adverse consequences.”

Schedule 7

Schedule 7 was introduced as part of the 2000 Terrorism Act and gives the police the right to stop and search people at airports, to fingerprint them and take their DNA, and to hold them for up to 9 hours without legal representation.

More than 70,000 people were stopped and questioned under the Schedule 7 law last year and although most of them were white a hugely disproportionate number were ethnic minorities or Muslims. And the most intrusive and humiliating searches were conducted on those of “Muslim appearance.”

The government says that Schedule 7 is one of the powers in their arsenal to confront the terrorism threat to mainland Britain. They deny that it is targeted against any particular community but say they are reviewing possible improvements to it which would protect UK borders and respect human rights.

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