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AN INVESTIGATION began yesterday into whether government agents spied on civil liberties campaign Liberty.
The campaign began legal action against Britain’s secret service — Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) — over claims the agency meddled with Liberty communications.
Evidence will be heard by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which investigates complaints about the conduct of the security and intelligence services and often sits behind closed doors.
The hearing is expected to end later this week.
Liberty says there is a “reasonable likelihood” that intelligence services have “interfered with” its private communications in breach of rights to private life and freedom of expression — guaranteed by the Human Rights Act.
And the group wants the tribunal to declare that GCHQ, MI6 and MI5 acted unlawfully.
Liberty says its claim is based on intelligence services’ use of two programmes — Prism and Tempora.
A document prepared by Government lawyers and shown to tribunal judges at that hearing on July 1 said ministers could “neither confirm nor deny the existence of the alleged ‘Tempora’ operation.”
