Britain's highest court dealt a blow to the government's anti-terrorism policies on Thursday by ruling that the detention of foreign terrorist suspects without trial is illegal.  

A panel of Law Lords ruled in favor of nine Muslim men who were appealing against being held without charge under Britain's Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act on suspicion of being involved in terrorist attacks.

The legislation, introduced in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, allows British police to detain foreign terrorist suspects indefinitely without charge or trial if they are suspected of involvement in international terrorism and opt not to leave the country.

The Law Lords ruled that such detention on suspicion alone runs contrary to European human rights laws.

"The measures are unjustifiably discriminatory against foreign nationals and are not strictly required as they require the detentions of some, but not all, those who present a risk," said Lord Thomas Bingham, head of the panel hearing the appeal.

The panel, made up of nine Law Lords rather than the normal five because of the constitutional importance of the legal challenge, ruled 8-1 against the detentions.

The ruling deals a severe blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, coming just hours after Home Secretary David Blunkett -- the architect of the government's anti-terrorism policies -- resigned over allegations that he fast-tracked the visa application of his former lover's nanny.

Although the nine foreign detainees are not expected to be released immediately, the government will now come under enormous pressure to change the anti-terrorism law, political analysts commented.

The high-security Belmarsh prison in south London, where the nine detainees are being held, has been dubbed "Britain's Guantanamo" by human rights campaigners who compare it to the US naval base in Cuba, home to large numbers of combatants captured in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2004)