David Miranda detention: MP asks police for explanation

Pressure is mounting on police to justify the detention of a journalist's partner under terror laws.

Senior politicians and an independent reviewer have said police must explain why David Miranda was detained for nine hours at Heathrow Airport.

Mr Miranda's partner is a journalist who published documents leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Police have not said why Mr Miranda was held, but he said he was kept in a room and quizzed by "six agents".

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said police must explain why terrorism powers were used.

Brazil has complained that his detention was "without justification".

The Home Office said it was for the police to decide when to use its powers to stop people.

Questions 'about everything'

Mr Miranda, 28, was held at Heathrow on Sunday, on his way from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with his partner, Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald.

"I remained in a room, there were six different agents coming and going, talking to me," Mr Miranda said.

"They asked questions about my entire life, about everything.

"They took my computer, video game, mobile phone, my memory cards, everything."

In Germany, Mr Miranda had been staying with US film-maker Laura Poitras, who has also been working on the Snowden files with Mr Greenwald and the Guardian, according to the newspaper.

His flights were being paid for by the Guardian. A spokesperson said he was not an employee of the newspaper but "often assists" Mr Greenwald with his work.

Mr Miranda was held under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This allows police to hold someone at an airport for up to nine hours for questioning about whether they have been involved with acts of terrorism.

Anyone detained must "give the examining officer any information in his possession which the officer requests". Any property seized must be returned after seven days.

The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, David Anderson QC, said it was very unusual for a passenger to be held for the full nine hours under this schedule and he wanted to "get to the bottom" of what had happened.

He said he had asked the Home Office and Scotland Yard for a full briefing.

'Bullying'

The Guardian said it was "dismayed" that Mr Miranda had been detained and was "urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities" as to why it had happened.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed a 28-year-old man was held from 08:05 BST until 17:00 BST on Sunday under schedule 7 and was not arrested.

According to the Home Office, more than 97% of examinations under schedule 7 last less than an hour.

Mr Greenwald said the British authorities' actions in holding Mr Miranda amounted to "bullying" and linked it to his writing about Edward Snowden's revelations concerning the US National Security Agency (NSA).

He said it was "clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and (UK intelligence agency) GCHQ".

He told the BBC: "They never asked him about a single question at all about terrorism or anything relating to a terrorist organisation.

"They spent the entire day asking about the reporting I was doing and other Guardian journalists were doing on the NSA stories."

He said he would respond by writing reports "much more aggressively than before" and would publish "many more documents".

"I have lots of documents about the way the secret services operate in England. Now my focus will be there as well," he added.

"I think they are going to regret what they did."

'Extraordinary'

Mr Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia, leaked details of extensive internet and phone surveillance by American intelligence services.

According to the Guardian, Mr Snowden passed "thousands of files" to Mr Greenwald, who has written a series of stories about surveillance by US and UK authorities.

The NSA has broken privacy rules and overstepped its legal authority thousands of times in the past two years, according to the leaked documents.

Mr Vaz told the BBC police must "of course" question people if they have "concerns" about what they are doing in the UK.

"What is extraordinary is they knew he was the partner [of Mr Greenwald] and therefore it is clear not only people who are directly involved are being sought but also the partners of those involved," he said.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents to Mr Greenwald

"Bearing in mind it is a new use of terrorism legislation to detain someone in these circumstances... I will write to the police to ask for the justification of the use of terrorism legislation - they may have a perfectly reasonable explanation."

He later said: "Those of us who were part of passing this legislation certainly would not have expected it to be used in a case of this kind."

Ms Cooper said: "Any suggestion that terror powers are being misused must be investigated and clarified urgently.

"The public support for these powers must not be endangered by a perception of misuse."

The Brazilian government issued an official statement soon after the release of Mr Miranda.

The foreign ministry document said there was no justification for detaining an "individual against whom there are no charges that can legitimate the use of that [anti-terror] legislation".

Journalism 'not terrorism'

It also said Brazil expects incidents "such as the one that happened to the Brazilian citizen today" not to be repeated.

Journalists' groups have accused authorities of misusing terrorism laws.

Bob Satchwell, of the Society of Editors, said the incident was "another example of the dangerous tendency" for authorities to "assume that journalists are bad when in fact they play an important part in any democracy."

He added: "Journalism may be embarrassing and annoying for governments but it is not terrorism."

Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, added: "Journalists no longer feel safe exchanging even encrypted messages by email and now it seems they are not safe when they resort to face-to-face meetings."

BBC