Eight foreign terrorist suspects detained indefinitely in Britain without charge or trial on Wednesday lost a court challenge against their internment. The men are being held under the 2001 anti-terrorism law, which allows foreign nationals to be jailed indefinitely if the British government decides they pose a threat to national security and they cannot be deported to their home countries. Lawyers for the men had challenged a ruling of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission that the government had "sound material" supporting the claim the suspects were a risk to national security. Lawyer Ben Emmerson argued at a hearing last month that the commission was not entitled to consider evidence which might have been obtained under torture or ill-treatment at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram air base in Afghanistan or other U.S. detention centers. But in a written ruling, three judges sitting in the Court of Appeal rejected the appeals. Two other appellants in the case have exercised their option to leave Britain rather than remain in detention.
