Tom Little QC appears in Supreme Court for the Director of Public Prosecutions in high-profile judicial review claim

The Supreme Court will today hear an appeal from the judgment of the Divisional Court in Belhaj and Boudchar v the DPP & The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2017] EWHC 3056 on whether a decision not to prosecute is a ‘criminal cause or matter’ for the purposes of the Justice and Security Act 2013 and therefore whether it is open to the High Court to conduct closed material proceedings when the material on which the DPP makes a charging decision involves issues of national security. The appeal has been expedited and is being heard only 3 weeks after permission was granted. The underlying facts relate to the alleged ‘rendition’ of Abdel Belhaj and his wife from Bangkok to Libya in 2004.

Tom Little QC is instructed to represent the Director of Public Prosecutions.