UK - Supreme court quashes Iran bank sanctions and criticises secret hearings.

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Guardian

The government's enthusiasm for secret courts has been set back after the UK's most senior judges quashed anti-terrorist sanctions imposed on an Iranian bank and dismissed the intelligence involved as insignificant.

In two related judgments, the supreme court ordered the Treasury to remove sanctions against Bank Mellat and said that in future, appeal courts should go into closed session "only where it has been convincingly demonstrated to be genuinely necessary in the interests of justice".

The Tehran-based bank has been fighting to have the sanctions lifted since 2009. The UK Treasury alleged that the bank had financed firms involved in Iran's nuclear weapons programme.

In order to justify the allegations, the Treasury asked the supreme court to go into a secret session for the first time this spring.

In the first judgment, read out by Lord Neuberger, the president of the supreme court, the justices said: "Having held a closed hearing, it turned out that there had been no point in the supreme court seeing the closed judgment [which related to the secret intelligence], because there was nothing in it which could have affected [our] reasoning in relation to the substantive appeal.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jun/19/supreme-court-iran-bank-mellat-sanctions-secret-hearings

[idwiyo]

1. K&R

[Civilization2]

2. Again with the gov. secrecy, again lies and misdirection.

Demand an and to government secrecy, demand a free and open society.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023043507

[dipsydoodle]

3. British Supreme Court ruling threatens Western sanctions against Iran

(Reuters) - Western government sanctions against Iran suffered a big setback on Wednesday when Britain's top court ruled that the government was wrong to have imposed sanctions on the biggest Iranian private bank over alleged links to Tehran's nuclear programme.

The Bank Mellat case and more than 50 like it pending at the European Union's two highest courts have clouded the future of EU sanctions and alarmed Washington, which relies on European support to throttle Iran's links to the global economy in hopes of getting it to curb its disputed pursuit of nuclear power.

The British Supreme Court decision on Wednesday mirrored a January ruling by the EU General Court, which overturned sanctions imposed on Bank Mellat in 2010 on grounds that EU governments had failed to provide enough information to support their case that the bank had assisted the nuclear programme.

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The British Supreme Court ruling paved the way for Bank Mellat to sue Britain for damages. A bank spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday it was considering launching a claim against Britain that "could exceed 500 million pounds".

[bemildred]

4. Yeah, that one is going to smart too. nt