Hight court to decide if human rights lawyer’s phone can be examined

Lawyers representing human rights lawyer Fahad Ansari will ask High Court judges to stop cops examining his phone. Ansari is taking Welsh police and the Home Secretary to court. He says his work phone should not be accessed because it contains privileged information about clients. A fact, he claims, the police acknowledge.

Ansari was reportedly stopped by police during a family holiday in August. He was then detained and questioned about his political and religious views and his clients. His phone was seized.

Ahead of the hearing, Ansari said:

Even the police agree that my phone contains sensitive, privileged information. All I am asking the court on Monday is to make sure this material stays protected until a judge rules on whether the police acted lawfully in detaining me and seizing it.

In a statement, CAGE International said:

Ansari has issued judicial review proceedings against the Chief Constable of North Wales Police and the Home Secretary over the decision to detain him and seize his work phone containing privileged and confidential information relating to his clients.

Adding:

It is believed that this is the first time that Schedule 7 has been used to specifically target a solicitor involved in active litigation against the government. Ansari is also challenging the lawfulness of the power police have under Schedule 7 to seize anyone’s phone without the need for suspicion.

Mass objections

A letter signed by over 500 people, including fellow legal experts and human rights activists, has also been circulated in support of Ansari. It reads:

We, the undersigned organisations and individuals, condemn the escalating campaign of harassment by the British authorities against Irish Muslim solicitor, Fahad Ansari, who is being politically targeted solely for carrying out his professional duties.

On 6th August 2025, police officers at the Welsh port of Holyhead stopped Fahad under the notorious Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, on his return from a family holiday in Ireland with his wife and children. Whilst his family waited in their car, police detained Fahad for almost three hours and seized his work phone, despite his protestations that it contained legally privileged information relating to his clients. Police questioned Fahad about his religious practices, including how regularly he attends mosque, his views on Palestine, the protests he attends, the products he boycotts, Palestine Action and even his clients. The case is believed to be the first time police have used Schedule 7 to target a solicitor in the UK in this way.

Smears and death threats

Fahad is a senior solicitor specialising in cases involving national security and has a strong track record of holding the British government to account. In February this year, Fahad persuaded the Supreme Court to rule that the government had no power to deny citizenship to a child of a terror suspect unlawfully stripped of his British citizenship. In April, Fahad submitted the landmark application to the Home Secretary in April for the deproscription of Hamas, under Section 4 of the Terrorism Act. Section 4 enables banned groups to legally challenge their inclusion on the government’s list of terrorist groups. Fahad was immediately subjected to smears by senior politicians and the media, including identifying him with his client, and he received hundreds of abusive calls and messages, including threats of violence and death threats.

“Schedule 7 has been widely condemned by the UN, successive independent reviewers of counter terrorism legislation, as well as domestic and international human rights organisations, for being overly broad in its application, lacking essential safeguards and being applied in a discriminatory manner, specifically against the Muslim community. As one of the only powers in the UK that allows for a person to be detained and questioned without any need for suspicion, rights groups have documented its use to harass and intimidate activists, journalists and other human rights defenders in order to create an environment of fear as well as to illegitimately access vast amounts of personal data without judicial oversight.

Judicial review

We stand in solidarity with Fahad and support his claim for a judicial review against the Chief Constable of North Wales Police and the Home Secretary. We call on the British authorities to immediately cease their campaign of harassment against Fahad and allow him to carry out his professional duties as a solicitor without obstruction and intimidation.