{"id":5766,"date":"2012-01-11T16:23:05","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T16:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/01\/11\/bbc-win-case-to-film-detainee-babar-ahmad\/"},"modified":"2012-01-11T16:23:05","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T16:23:05","slug":"bbc-win-case-to-film-detainee-babar-ahmad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/11\/bbc-win-case-to-film-detainee-babar-ahmad\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC win case to film detainee Babar Ahmad"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

High Court overturns filming ban by Justice Secretary <\/h3>\n
THE BBC will be given the chance to film Britain\u2019s longest held-without-charge prisoner after a High Court ruling reversed a ban imposed by the Justice Secretary.<\/strong> <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Babar Ahmad has been in prison since August 2004 on terror-related charges. He has never been charged or faced trial in this country and denies any wrongdoing. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old is fighting\u00a0extradition to the US, which accuses him of fundraising for Chechen and Afghan insurgents\u00a0on the internet. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

In November 2011, over 140,000 signed an official government e-petition in\u00a0support of his case, which led to two Parliamentary debates on the issue.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The BBC had requested an interview with Mr Ahmad but it was denied by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But the High Court overturned the decision because of the exceptional nature of Mr Ahmad\u2019s case. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr Justice Singh said the decision to refuse permission to film Mr Ahmad was wrong and an interview had to be allowed. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Ashfaq Ahmad, father of Babar Ahmad, who has campaigned for his son\u2019s release welcomed the ruling. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son, Babar Ahmad, has been held in\u00a0prison without charge for over seven years. I am pleased that the High Court has ruled that\u00a0there is exceptional public interest in Babar\u2019s case and said that the BBC should be allowed\u00a0to film him in prison,\u201d he said. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cOther people facing extradition to the US, such as the NatWest three\u00a0and Gary McKinnon, have been allowed full access to the media to tell the public the truth\u00a0about their ordeals and our flawed extradition laws. I urge Mr Clarke to listen to the public\u00a0and not to appeal this decision. After all, what has the Government to fear from what Babar\u00a0has to say?\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Simon Creighton of Bhatt Murphy solicitors, who represented Mr Ahmad as an interested\u00a0party in the proceedings added:\u00a0\u201cMy client is delighted that the court has recognised the right of freedom of speech also\u00a0encompasses the right of the general public to be properly informed. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Ahmad has not\u00a0been charged with any crime in this country but has spent the best part of a decade in\u00a0prison. There is simply no justification for preventing the BBC from speaking to him about\u00a0his experiences.\u201d<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High Court overturns filming ban by Justice Secretary THE BBC will be given the chance to film Britain\u2019s longest held-without-charge prisoner after a High Court ruling reversed a ban imposed by the Justice Secretary. Babar Ahmad has been in prison since August 2004 on terror-related charges. He has never been charged or faced trial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}