GCHQ ordered to destroy Libyan man's intercepted communications

GCHQ must destroy communications between a Libyan man and his lawyers that were intercepted by the UK's state communications monitoring agency, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has ordered in a groundbreaking ruling.

The ruling is thought to be the first time that the IPT, which investigates complaints against the security services, has upheld a complaint by an individual against the security services in its 15-year history.

GCHQ has been ordered to destroy two documents following the latest ruling, which will deepen privacy concerns about the US and UK government online surveillance programmes revealed in 2013 by whistleblower Edward Snowdon.

The IPT case was brought by two Libyan men who claimed they were victims of alleged rendition in a joint UK-US operation and were forcibly returned to Muammer Gaddafi's regime in 2004.

The Libyan men and their families brought legal action in the High Court for their alleged kidnap against the then-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, former MI6 counterterror head Sir Mark Allen and the UK government.

The family of Sami Al Saadi have since settled their civil claim for £2.2m in 2012 although the case of the other claimant Abel Hakim Belhaj comes before the Supreme Court this year.

As well as High Court litigation, the Libyans also complained to the IPT accusing the UK's spy agencies of intercepting communications with their lawyers to defeat their civil legal action.

Since then their case has triggered a series of tribunal hearings and rulings about the security services' policies for eavesdropping on private conversations between lawyers and their clients, and whether or not they complied with European human rights laws.

In the latest ruling, Mr Justice Burton, president of the IPT, ruled that in the case of Sami Al Saadi, there had been interception "in respect of two documents".

The IPT determination found there had been an infringement of Mr Al Saadi's article 8 rights "in respect only of the legally privileged information of the Third Claimant contained in two documents held by GCHQ".

The information is covered by legal professional privilege but "it did not disclose nor refer to any legal advice", the tribunal said.

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The tribunal added it was "satisfied that the legally privileged information contained in the two relevant documents will be adequately protected from any unlawful use or disclosure in the future."

However, the tribunal has ordered GCHQ to give an undertaking that the parts of the documents containing legally privileged information "will be destroyed or deleted so as to render such information inaccessible to the agency in the future".

One hard copy of the two documents will be delivered within seven days to the Interception of Communications Commissioner, to be retained for a period of five years, in case they are needed for future legal actions.

Cori Crider, a director at Reprieve and counsel to the al-Saadi and Belhaj families, said: "GCHQ spied on privileged legal communications, in a case where they were being sued by a rendition and torture victim. We are pleased that one man has finally beaten the security services in this secretive tribunal."

Sami al-Saadi said: "I am glad to be the first person to win against the spies in this tribunal. I had always been told I had a right to communicate with my lawyers about this torture case in private, but that clearly wasn't the case. This was illegal behaviour and I hope now that the right to take legal advice in private will never be ignored again."

Richard Stein at law firm Leigh Day, who represented the families in the tribunal, said: "The time has come for the spies to respect every person's fundamental right to consult a lawyer in private."

A government spokesperson said: "The government welcomes the tribunal's confirmation today that the intelligence agencies did not seek or gain any advantage in legal proceedings, nor held information referring to any legal advice relating to the claimants.

"The government published a revised code of practice in February 2015 to provide increased safeguards for handling legally privileged material. The agencies are working with the Interception of Communications Commissioner to ensure that their policies meet the required standard."

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