British authorities faced a furore Monday after they held the partner of a journalist who worked with Edward Snowden to expose US mass surveillance programmes for almost nine hours under anti-terror laws.
David Miranda – the Brazilian partner of Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist with Britain’s Guardian newspaper – was held on Sunday as he passed through London’s Heathrow Airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro from Berlin.
A furious Greenwald said British authorities had “zero suspicion” that Miranda was involved in terrorism and instead spent hours interrogating him about the Guardian’s reporting on the activities of the US National Security Agency, which has enraged Washington.
“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,” Greenwald wrote in the Guardian.
“They completely abused their own terrorism law for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.”
Miranda, 28, had been refused access to a lawyer and officials had taken his laptop and mobile phone, Greenwald added.
The British interior ministry did not immediately comment on Miranda’s detention, saying it was a police matter.
But authorities were under increasing pressure to explain why he had been held, with Brazil expressing “grave concern” that one of its citizens had been apparently “held incommunicado” at the airport.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the British parliament’s home affairs committee, said he was writing to the police to demand an explanation, describing Miranda’s detention as “extraordinary.”
“They may have a perfectly reasonable explanation,” he told BBC radio.
“But... if we are going to use the (Terrorism) Act in this way, for those issues that are not related to terrorism, then at least we need to know.”
London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed that a 28-year-old man was detained at Heathrow Airport under anti-terrorism legislation.
“He was not arrested. He was subsequently released,” a police spokesman said.
Brazil’s foreign ministry said its embassy in London had contacted British officials prior to Miranda’s release and that Brazil would also be seeking an explanation from US officials.
“This measure is without justification since it involves an individual against whom there are no charges that can justify the use of that legislation,” the ministry said in a statement.
Brazil expects there to be no repeat of the incident, it warned.
Greenwald, a well-known journalist in the US, analysed and published information on documents released by former US security contractor Snowden revealing huge electronic surveillance operations by the NSA.
Snowden has been granted asylum in Russia after spending five weeks in limbo at a Moscow airport attempting to avoid extradition to the US. He is wanted by Washington on espionage charges.
The Guardian said it was “dismayed” by Miranda’s detention.
