David Miranda and the Judicial System

By Jamie Barr

Glenn Greenwald (L) and David Miranda (R).
Picture credit: BBC / Reuters

David Miranda is partner of former guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald who has covered many stories on the US whistle-blower Edward Snowden. The 28year old Brazilian citizen was detained for nine hours at Heathrow airport; he had been on his way from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. He was detained under the law 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 on the 18^th of August. The reason for him being detained was because it was believed he was carrying secret documents but they were allegedly journalistic material however the case was brought to the high court as it was believed that David Miranda’s human rights were breached. 

The law states that you are allowed to detain someone for nine hours for questioning to whether they’ve been involved in any acts of terrorism. However, it’s very unusual for someone to be held for that length of time according to the home office 97% of examinations occur under seven hours. Furthermore, Miranda has accused the authorities of “bullying” and said “it was clearly intended to send a message of intimidation”. His lawyers are argued his detention of the maximum period allowed was a misuse of schedule seven and breached his human rights. In response the case was taken to the high court.

The connection to Edward Snowden is that he is a former contractor at the US National Security Agency, leaked details of extensive Internet and phone surveillance by American intelligence services. According to the Guardian he passed “thousands of files” to Greenwald.  Acting upon his new found information he has written several stories about surveillance by US and UK authorities.

The high court has ruled Mr.Miranda’s detention was lawful saying it was a “proportionate measure in the circumstances”. The judge stated there was "compelling evidence" that stopping Mr Miranda was "imperative in the interests of national security". In his ruling, Lord Justice Laws said: "The claimant was not a journalist; the stolen GCHQ intelligence material he was carrying was not 'journalistic material', or if it was, only in the weakest sense."

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said the judgement was a "clear vindication of the officers' conduct, demonstrating that they acted lawfully and in good faith throughout". Home Secretary Theresa May said the judgement "overwhelmingly supports the wholly proportionate action taken by the police in this case to protect national security".

This is important for politics students to know as it provides a good example in examinations of a case in which the judiciary in the UK have judged which affected Human Rights. It’s up to date and was highly publicised therefore allowing the student to gain extra marks.