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Fully secret terror trial blocked by Court of Appeal | |
(35 minutes later) | |
An unprecedented attempt to hold the first ever completely secret criminal trial in the UK has been blocked by the Court of Appeal. | |
Judges said that the "core" of the terrorism trial could be partly heard in secret but parts must be in public. | |
They said media also should be allowed to name the two defendants as Erol Incedal and Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadjar. | |
Prosecutors said their unique application for a secret trial was in the interests of national security. | |
They had previously warned that they may have to abandon the prosecution if judges did not ban the press and the public from every part of the proceedings against the two defendants. | |
Until Thursday, the men were previously only known as AB and CD respectively. | |
In their decision, judges said that the trial of the two men was of an exceptional nature and the core of it must be held in private. But they added that they had "grave concerns" about the cumulative effect of anonymising defendants and holding the hearings in secret. | |
The judges said that the media and public would be allowed to attend the swearing-in of the jury, parts of the prosecution's introductory remarks setting out the case, the verdicts and, where there are convictions, the sentencing. | |
The Court added that a small number of journalists could be allowed to attend the closed parts of the trial, subject to agreement relating to the confidentiality of the proceedings. Their notes would be securely stored until the end of the trial. |