On Wednesday 25 March 2026, a hearing was convened to consider any further steps following events on 20 January 2026, when Government Legal Department security staff entered the office of a Special Advocate for Mr Al-Libi on the direction of Intelligence Services lawyers, and seized privileged material held in her safe. Mr Al-Libi is pursuing a claim alleging that he suffered CIA torture in which the UK government has been complicit.
The target of the operation was Mr Al-Libi’s Special Advocate, Ms Rachel Toney. Her files and privileged working documents from a related case involving another Guantanamo detainee, which she had been using, were seized.
Both the Claimant and the Special Advocates have alleged that the intelligence agencies’ operation had been driven by an improper purpose: to gain a litigation advantage by preventing Ms Toney having access to key material that she was deploying effectively in Mr Al-Libi’s case.
At the hearing on Wednesday, the intelligence agencies publicly accepted that Ms Toney had not acted improperly in any way, and that all of the seized material could be used by the Special Advocates in Mr Al-Libi’s case.
Mr Justice Chamberlain has reserved judgment.
Press reporting of the hearing can be found on the BBC website, here, and in The Independent, here.
Megan Phillips and Mavi Salvatori of Bhatt Murphy act for Abu Faraj Al-Libi, instructing Jesse Nicholls at Matrix Chambers and Ben Jaffey KC at Blackstone Chambers.
