DISCLOSURE 'MAY HARM ALGERIA TRIAL'
Public disclosure of information relating to criminal proceedings following a terrorist siege at an Algerian gas plant where a number of Britons were killed could "severely prejudice" the case against those suspected of involvement in the attack, families of the victims and their lawyers have heard.
West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield, who was conducting a pre-inquest review at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today, announced that she could not make use of documents she had received from the Algerian authorities.
She told a packed courtroom: "The Algerian director general has said that if the information were to be made public it would severely prejudice the criminal case."
The coroner added: "I fully accept that assertion, it having been made by someone of his position. Were the material to relate to a criminal trial in England it is very likely that a similar position would be taken."
Six Britons and a UK-based Colombian were killed in the attack.
Carson Bilsland and Kenneth Whiteside, both from Scotland, Sebastian John, from Norfolk, Stephen Green, from Hampshire, Paul Morgan and Garry Barlow, both from Liverpool, and Carlos Estrada, a BP executive who was originally from Colombia but lived in London, were among 40 hostages who were killed at the In Amenas plant during a four-day stand-off which began on January 16 last year.
Some 29 of the hostage-takers died, while three were captured by Algerian troops during a special forces mission to end the bloodshed.
At a previous pre-inquest hearing, Ms Schofield said that even though criminal proceedings will not have taken place in Algeria when the inquest begins at the Royal Courts of Justice in September, she would be asking whether the Algerian authorities had any objections to her using the documents she had received from them.
She said that some of the material she had received contained accounts from suspects arrested by the Algerian authorities, and that she needed time to consider whether she could make use of the interviews or not.
At the start of proceedings today - the third pre-inquest hearing - the coroner said the first matter on the agenda was an update on the "Algerian material".
Giving her decision on whether or not she could "use this Algerian material", she announced: "The answer is I cannot make use of the Algerian material."
The coroner said she had received, via the Algerian director general, around 124 pages of documents.
She had previously notified all interested parties that the material had been "provided to me in confidence and they would therefore not be given access to it", adding: "This remains the current position."
Lawyers for Mr Estrada had now asked her to set out in more detail her reasons for refusing to disclose the material to interested persons.
She said: "The information has been provided to me by the Algerian authorities on the basis that it shall not be further disseminated or made public because the information relates to the criminal case against suspects being held in Algeria."
Ms Schofield said she had not obtained consent to disclose any of the material.
