LONDON (Reuters) – Jury members were sworn in on Monday at the start of a terrorism trial that prosecutors had tried to hold entirely in secret – a bid unprecedented in recent British legal history.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had asked for the blackout on national security grounds but their application was rejected in June by the Court of Appeal.
Even so, large parts of the trial of Erol Incedal will be held in secret and with reporters subject to unusually tight restrictions on what they can report.
Incedal, 26, was arrested in October last year with another man, Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadja, who last week admitted possessing a bomb-making document on a memory card.
Incedal denies charges of preparing for acts of terrorism contrary to the Terrorism Act 2006 and collecting information useful to terrorism.
Mr Justice Nicol told the eight women and four men of the jury at the Old Bailey court that although in Britain trials usually take place in public, some parts of this one will be held in private.
He said the first stage of the trial would start on Tuesday, although he did not specify whether it would be in open court.
Of the parts of the trial held in private, some will be attended by 10 reporters who will not be able to report the proceedings and must hand over their notes to the court until the trial is concluded.
Read more at Reuters
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