In the Court of Appeal yesterday morning, six former Guantánamo prisoners - Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil El-Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Martin Mubanga - won a resounding victory against the government, when three senior judges, including Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, overturned a ruling that, for the first time in British history, allowed the government to use secret evidence in a civil claim for damages.

The former prisoners are suing MI5, MI6, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Attorney General on the basis that agents of the intelligence services were involved in unlawful acts and conspiracy, and that, essentially, they were involved in, or failed to stop, their detention and ill-treatment (and in some cases, their "extraordinary rendition" to secret prisons). However, in November, Mr. Justice Silber ruled that the government should be able to withhold evidence from defendants and their lawyers on the basis of national security.

In reversing this ruling, the judges in the Court of Appeal - Lord Neuberger, Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Lord Justice Sullivan - said they were obliged to "take a stand" against secrecy that would undermine the "most fundamental principles of common law."

UK Appeals Court Rules Out Government's Use Of Secret Evidence In Guantánamo Damages Claim