Al Khawaja and Tahery v United Kingdom
Forum and dates
Heard by Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights on 19 May 2010, judgment pending.
Outline of the issues
Whether the hearsay provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 are compatible with the right to confront adverse witnesses under article 6(3)(d) of the Convention.
The significance of the issue was underlined by the further judgment of the UK Supreme Court in R v Horncastle in December 2009, in which the Supreme Court declined to follow the ECtHR’s ruling pending further clarification by the Grand Chamber.
Read more
JUSTICE intervened by way of written submissions, arguing that many of the Supreme Court’s conclusions in Horncastle were flawed and, in particular, gave too little weight to the importance of an accused person’s common law right to confront the witnesses against him or her.