Terror suspects can sue for damages

Terror suspects could sue the Government for damages over the use of control orders which breached their human rights, after a ruling by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

Three judges rejected a Government challenge to a landmark High Court ruling which allowed compensation claims in the cases of two terror suspects known only as "AF" and "AE", who were ordered to live under home curfews and subjected to other restrictions on their liberties for more than three years. In office, Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, agreed that control orders must be "revoked" because neither man had been given enough evidence about the allegations against them.

Mr Justice Silber, sitting at the High Court in London in January, said the orders must not only be revoked but quashed with retrospective effect. This gave the go-ahead for damages claims for loss of liberty and alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights dating to 2006, when the orders were imposed.

Lord Justice Maurice Kay, sitting with Lord Justice Rix and Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, dismissed an appeal by the Government.