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Why This Man Is Risking Jail by Refusing to Surrender Passwords at a London Airp
ort
Dell Cameron
Today 7:00pmFiled to: WAR ON TERROR
29
13
Photo Courtesy Cage
Muhammad Rabbani wasn t shocked last winter when he was stopped by British authori
ties at Heathrow airport. It would ve been more astonishing had he simply walked u
p to the passport counter, declared his business and been allowed to pass.
A British activist whose work entails the defense of people affected by British
anti-terror laws and the war on terror, more broadly Rabbani has spent hours in dete
ntion whilst traveling in and out of the UK. But this Wednesday will be the firs
t time he s faced criminal charges resulting from such an encounter.
If you re stopped and questioned and don t answer, that s a criminal offense.
Although not suspected of any crime, Rabbani, 35, was detained by police for sev
eral hours at Heathrow, just as he had been about 20 times before. This time, howe
ver, he was carrying a laptop, the contents of which include information he desc
ribes as relevant to a case of torture involving the US government. Asked to sur
render his password and decrypt the files, he refused.
Four hours later, Rabbani, the international director of the human rights group
Cage, was arrested and taken to a police station in the London borough of Hillin
gdon, where he spent the following day in jail.
He was held under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, a law which grants police bro
ad powers when it comes to the detention and interrogation of British citizens e
ntering and leaving the country. A citizen need not be suspected of committing a
ny crime before being detained, and they can be examined up to six hours. Refusi
ng to answer any question, or cooperate at any point, constitutes a criminal off
ense.
Tens of thousands of people are detained each year under the 2000 law. As many a
s 561,660 such interrogations took place between 2015 and 2016, according to the
Middle East Eye (citing British Home Office figures). In the same period, as ma
ny as 551 people had their biometric data collected, and 1,677 had mobile data d
ownloaded by police; under Schedule 7, police are authorized to conduct what Rab
bani has come to describe as a digital strip search, even without reasonable suspi
cion.
Cage describes itself as an independent advocacy organization working to empower
communities impacted by the War on Terror. The group, which includes a former Gua
ntanamo Bay prisoner released without charge, often provokes what Rabbani calls u
ncomfortable conversations about how Western nations deal with the threat of terr
orism and in particular, actions that are perceived to stir resentment among, and
radicalize, young Muslims.
In an interview Monday with Gizmodo over an encrypted phone call, Rabbani descri
bed his experiences being detained under Schedule 7 and further explained why he s
refusing to hand over his passwords.
Gizmodo: How many times have you been stopped under Schedule 7 and what s that pro
cess generally like?
Rabbani: Over the last decade or so, about 20 times I ve been held under that powe
r. Essentially, you land at the airport, you go to the passport desk, and at tha
t point usually they ll say, have you reported your passport stolen or lost, or some
thing. That s their typical sort of remark. I need to get this checked by somebody,
could you just wait? You re left waiting there amongst all the other travelers, so
you look like there s something wrong with you. There s thousands of people, or hun
dreds of people all around you, and you re just sitting there not allowed to pass.
And then somebody does some checks and they come back. Let s say there s a countert
errorism officer available, they ll come and take you for questioning. If they re no
t available, or they re busy off doing other things, then nothing happens. They ju
st make a note and it s, Okay, no problem. You can go now.
As you progress through the stages, you lose more and more of your rights.
That part of the stop lasts about a half hour. There s no questioning beyond the b
asic things, like: Where did you come from? What was the purpose of your trip? How lo
ng were you there? If it proceeds from there on to something further, then the Sc
hedule 7 process begins at that point.
The Schedule 7 process is divided into three stages. There s a screening stage, an
examination stage, and there s a detention stage. As you progress through the sta
ges, you lose more and more of your rights. The screening stages, for most peopl
e who are not aware, is a part of Schedule 7 stops, but it s not recorded. And tha
t s a crucial difference, because the authorities do not collect data on how many
people they ve stopped under the screening stage. What they do collect is when it
goes on to the examination stage, which lasts a maximum of one hour. Under the e
xamination stage, you re essentially interrogated, searched, and you have no right
to remain silent. That s pretty much it.
Under the examination stage you can be searched, your devices can be confiscated
, and because you have no right to remain silent, this is where it s connected to
the gist of my case. You have to answer when they ask you, What s your password? Mos
t Schedule 7 stops, that s enough for the authorities to collect data on you. But
some progress onto the final stage, which is detention. In that stage, your DNA
can be taken, fingerprints can be taken, and you can be strip searched physicall
y.
Now, in the process that I ve described, there s never a suggestion that you re suspec
ted of a crime; there s no accusation of a crime; there s no formal accusation of an
ything. In fact, the opposite is usually asserted: You have nothing to worry abou
t. You re under no suspicion. We re just going to ask you some questions. But obvious
ly, you can see how invasive the entire process is. So that s typically what happe
ns and that s what I ve experienced on the many, many occasions that I ve been stopped
coming back to the UK, particularly; sometimes it s also on the way out.
What happened different on this occasion, when I explained to the officers that
I can t hand over my passwords, they decided to escalate the issue. They arrested
me after about three to four hours of trying to reason with them. I asked them,
for example: If I were a doctor, or a therapist, or a teacher, or someone who has
clients, someone who has patients, and I said to you that I can t just give you a
ll of that personal information, especially when you re not accusing me of any wro
ngdoing, I m sure you can understand that I d be in my right to protect that informa
tion. And they said, Yes, we understand, however, this is the law. And I said: Look,
then you ve got something wrong then. Your interpretation must be wrong because t
he law can t what I know is the law requires any public servant or public official t
o protect that data, to protect confidentiality and trust. That s actually enshrin
ed in an act in the U.K. called the Data Protection Act. But what you guys are t
elling me clearly contradicts that, and you re instead requiring me to do the oppo
site, which is to breach that confidentiality and trust, when I m not accused of a
crime and you re not even suggesting that I m under suspicion.
Gizmodo: How often do you get to the detention stage? Does it happen every time?
Rabbani: It s not often. It s some of the time. I can t remember how many. But I think
the important thing here is, whether I or somebody else reaches that stage, it s
actually secondary. The most important thing is that such powers exist to begin
with. There must be a logic to creating powers, and I think that s one of the reas
ons why we re bringing this challenge and trying to raise awareness around it to say
, there are laws currently operating in the UK, which are not consistent with du
e process norms. And they re not consistent with, what we call in the UK, the rule
of law. And that cannot be right. That simply can t be right. Everyone should, be
fore denying a person their liberty, they have the right to at least know what w
rong that they ve done, or what they re suspected of doing.
I d have more rights at that point, accused of being involved in murder, than I wou
ld have arriving back home from a trip abroad at the border.
I was saying to a colleague earlier on today that if, right now, I went outside
onto the streets of London and some police officers came and stopped me and arre
sted me and said, We believe you re involved in a murder, I d have more rights at that
point, accused of being involved in murder, than I would have arriving back hom
e from a trip abroad at the border. So that s the disparity that we re trying to hig
hlight.
Gizmodo: You were arrested and then released, but still you re facing charges this
Wednesday?
Rabbani: That s exactly correct. I was arrested and held for one day in prison. Wh
en I declined [to give up] my passwords, I was handcuffed, taken to a police van
, and taken to a police station locally. I was held there for one whole day whil
e they worked out what to do. And they decided not to charge me, so I was bailed
to appear at a police station a few months later. So that s the situation I m in.
Gizmodo: Which police station?
Rabbani: The one that I was kept at, it s called Polar Park Police Station. The on
e I need to appear at is called Bethnal Green Police Station.
Gizmodo: What s the range of potential consequences you face for not surrendering
your password?
Rabbani: As it stands currently, if I m found guilty, the worst case scenario is I
land in prison for three months. The sort of better scenario is I end up with a
fine. But it s a terrorism conviction. So what would happen is the court will mor
e or less determine that I m a terrorist which is quite crazy because there s no ter
rorism involved in this. All it boils down to a password. And it s something that
I believe anybody, any person in my position would try to do: protect their clie
nts or patients.
But I must also add here that the police have threatened me in a formal letter t
o my solicitors that I ve already said that I haven t given my passwords, but they re al
so still trying to get my passwords, even though I ve committed the alleged offens
e and it s done. It was done in broad daylight in front of other police officers.
There s nothing more to determine. But what they are wanting to do is still get my
passwords. So what they ve said to my solicitors is that they will be considering
making an application under a different law called RIPA [Regulation of Investig
atory Powers Act]. Under that power, if they pursue me and my passwords, I ll be f
acing five years in prison.
So that s the real nightmare scenario. And again, it s all based on a password.
Gizmodo: Have you been unable to travel since your arrest?
Rabbani: Actually, strangely, no. In that regard everything s been okay. I ve actual
ly travelled on maybe two or three occasions since then. Nothing s happened. But o
f course, I ve been very, very anxious about what may happen. And I couldn t take my
devices with me at all on these trips. I was really worried, in case it leads t
o a further arrest or further accusations, then I m just gonna be in a really, rea
lly messed up position. And of course, there s an impact on my family.
And I think there s another impact, because I m the international director of this o
rganization that specializes in documenting cases of Western government complici
ty in torture. So, our current investigation that we re in the middle of, one of t
he unintended consequences I d like to think, because I don t believe in conspiracy th
eories has been the interference in this ongoing investigation. We ve also made that
point to the police, that, you know, you need to give back our devices and let
me get on with the work that I m meant to, in order to get accountability for this
torture victim. But instead what s happening is, it s almost as if the state is int
erfering in the work of an independent NGO.
You can imagine the headlines if, for example, the Russian authorities did the s
ame thing to an Amnesty International activist who was investigating Russian cri
mes. You understand what I m saying? It s essentially the same thing. And, in fact,
what we need is higher standards to be upheld in Western countries. That sets th
e standard. And that s a really important responsibility.
Gizmodo: How did you get into this line of work, tackling the war on terror and
its effect on Muslim communities?
Rabbani: My connection to this is from two angles. One is my own personal experi
ence. I think I m not unique in that because I think I fit a profile at the time.
I was, say, between 20 and 35, brown, an overtly practicing Muslim, and I was pr
obably associating with other practicing Muslims. And not only that, but because
of the roles I played in my community, I had a degree of influence. Maybe these
things attracted the intelligence services to try and approach me and try to re
cruit me. And, of course, I didn t like that type of behavior. I wanted things to
be done in a transparent and open way. But I think the approaches were always ve
ry underhanded and coercive in their nature. And I didn t like that. I actually we
nt to the media. I went to lawyers. And then I came across Cage and they offered
support.
Under that power, if they pursue me and my passwords, I ll be facing five years in
prison.
The other angle is, my roles prior to joining Cage have been primarily around cr
ime prevention and conflict resolution, particularly amongst young men who are d
isaffected and at risk of being involved in street crime and violence and gangs.
The idea of conflict resolution is something that means a lot to me. Trying to
find an ending to conflict. Of course, the context is different. It was about yo
ung people coming into conflict with other young people. The war on terror is ab
out a much, much broader, grander, and more devastating type of conflict. But I
think those ideas, as I grew older, they also influenced me to try and get invol
ved in some sort of initiative, to make some sense of this never-ending global w
ar that s going on between seemingly two sets of people all over the world.
Gizmodo: The case you re preparing, it involves accusations of torture in which th
e US government allegedly has a part. Is there anything else you can say about y
our investigation?
Rabbani: I d love to, but I can t at this stage I m afraid. We re going to have to wait
and let the legal aspects of it lead everything that we say. We have lawyers in
the UK, as well as the US, so we re following their guidelines. And they re obviousl
y very, very anxious as well because, what I m facing is connected to . almost like
the interests and developments of the other case. So I have to be very careful.
But I think I can say that, in due course, we ll be making all of this public.
I was going to draw one other point because you re based in the US and your reader
ship are too probably I m just making an assumption but I m guessing most are in the U
S there s a very interesting difference with what we re seeing in the US, with border
authorities compelling people to surrender their passwords, and the power that w
e have in the UK. There are two things actually: Number one, all the concerns ar
ound the Trump administration and border authorities and the way they re handling
travelers coming to the US correct me if I m wrong, but I think most of that is bein
g implemented against people who are traveling into the US who are not US citize
ns.
What s interesting is if you contrast that, if you look at what we have here in th
e UK, it s actually directed at British nationals. It s not directed at foreigners o
r tourists or anybody else. Although it can be used against them, the vast major
ity of people who actually are subjected to this type of detention are British c
itizens. So it s like, you re coming back home to your own country, and then you re me
t with this type of welcome and this violation which I ve been calling a digital stri
p search so that s one difference I thought I d noticed.
The other was that, in the US again, correct me if I m wrong when somebody is stopped
at the border like that, they have the right to remain silent. Here, in the UK,
it s a criminal offense to remain silent, meaning there s no right to remain silent.
If you re stopped and you re questioned and don t answer, that s a criminal offense. Th
at can land you in jail.
The third and final thing is, this power has been in the UK since the year 2000.
Each year, on average, 50,000 people are held and detained using this power and t
hese are Home Office figures which is a total of about half a million people. So t
here s a huge number of people that this is affecting. Huge amounts of data that s b
eing collected. And all of it is without suspicion, or formal accusations. Anoth
er way to put that is that they re completely innocent, law abiding citizens going
about their business, but under this pretext of protecting national security, a
nd preventing terrorism, this law has been active all this time which is, I think,
a travesty.
According to the research we ve done here at Cage, there is nothing like this powe
r anywhere else in the Western world.
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Dell Cameron@dellcam
Investigative reporter. FOIA enthusiast. Send tips: dell@gizmodo.com
PGP Fingerprint: EB53 EA4F 3049 C3B5|PGP Key
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