The government lost a court battle on Wednesday against two former terrorism suspects trying to win damages for being held without charge under security laws designed to combat militants.

The men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had so-called "control orders" against them removed in January after the country's top court ruled authorities could not use secret evidence to justify restricting their movements.

Their lawyers had argued the orders imposed on them in 2006 violated human rights laws because they were not told what the evidence against them was and so could not defend themselves in court.
The ruling could pave the way for similar lawsuits from other suspects who have had their control orders quashed.

Control orders, part of a raft of measures brought in by the former Labour government in 2005 in the aftermath of the September 11 2001 attacks, allow suspects to be kept under curfew for up to 16 hours a day.

Three judges at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday said they would now be free to pursue compensation claims for the 3-1/2 years they were subject to the orders.

However, the judges made clear the claims were not bound to succeed and that any awards would likely be low.

The Home Office said it would immediately appeal the latest judgment to the Supreme Court.

"We will resist strongly paying damages to former subjects of control orders wherever possible, and to minimise the level of compensation where we have no choice but to pay," a spokesman said.

The men, a British-Libyan accused of links with Islamic militants and an Iraqi Kurd accused of involvement with the Iraqi insurgency, have been freely living in the UK since the orders were lifted in January.

Human rights and justice organisations argue that control orders violate fundamental rights, and in June last year the House of Lords, then Britain's highest court, said in a landmark ruling the orders were not fair.

The two men whose control orders were quashed were also involved in the earlier House of Lords case.
Despite the court setbacks, successive governments have resisted calls to scrap control orders altogether.

However, the present Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition promised to review the control order system as part of a broader counter-terrorism legislation overhaul.

(REUTERS)