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02 September 2011
Issue: 7479 / Categories: Case law , Law reports , In Court
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Habeas corpus—Jurisdiction—Prisoner of war

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Rahmatullah v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and another [2011] EWHC 2008 (Admin), [2011] All ER (D) 279 (Jul)

Queen’s Bench Division, Divisional Court, Laws LJ and Silber J, 29 July 2011

Neither the secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs nor the secretary of state for defence possesses the necessary power or control to be able to direct the delivery up of a Pakistani national prisoner of war captured by British forces who is being held by the US at an airbase in Afghanistan.

Nathalie Lieven QC, Ben Jaffey and Tristan Jones (instructed by Leigh Day) for the claimant. James Eadie QC and Ben Watson (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the secretaries of state.

The applicant was a national of Pakistan. In February 2004, he was captured by British forces in Iraq and handed over to US forces. Thereafter he was held at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan (Bagram). In June 2010, a US detainee review board determined that his continued internment was “not necessary to mitigate the threat he poses” and that he

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