David Miranda, the partner of Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, was detained Sunday morning by U.K. authorities in London’s Heathrow airport under the Terrorism Act, according to The Guardian.
The 28-year-old was released nine hours later without being charged, but some of his electronics were confiscated. Miranda was traveling from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, his home.“This is a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process,” said Greenwald. “To detain my partner for a full nine hours while denying him a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ. The actions of the UK pose a serious threat to journalists everywhere.”
The Raw Story
Eric W. Dolan
Feel safer?
The Guardian (UK)
Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation
Glenn Greenwald
The detention of my partner, David Miranda, by UK authorities will have the opposite effect of the one intended...
But they obviously had zero suspicion that David was associated with a terrorist organization or involved in any terrorist plot. Instead, they spent their time interrogating him about the NSA reporting which Laura Poitras, the Guardian and I are doing, as well the content of the electronic products he was carrying. They completely abused their own terrorism law for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism: a potent reminder of how often governments lie when they claim that they need powers to stop "the terrorists", and how dangerous it is to vest unchecked power with political officials in its name.
Worse, they kept David detained right up until the last minute: for the full 9 hours, something they very rarely do. Only at the last minute did they finally release him. We spent all day - as every hour passed - worried that he would be arrested and charged under a terrorism statute. This was obviously designed to send a message of intimidation to those of us working journalistically on reporting on the NSA and its British counterpart, the GCHQ.The Guardian (UK)
Glenn Greenwald's partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours
Guardian staff
David Miranda, partner of Guardian interviewer of whistleblower Edward Snowden, questioned under Terrorism Act
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