MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti) – Amnesty International on Monday described as “unlawful and unwarranted” the detention by British authorities of the significant other of a journalist who worked with Edward Snowden.
“It is utterly improbable that David Michael Miranda, a Brazilian national transiting through London, was detained at random, given the role his husband has played in revealing the truth about the unlawful nature of NSA surveillance,” said Widney Brown, the organization’s senior director of international law and policy.
Miranda was detained while in transit in Heathrow Airport and was held in detention for nearly nine hours under the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals at airports, ports and border areas. Miranda is married to Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who analyzed and published information on documents leaked by Snowden.
The international organization said in a statement that Miranda, who was en route from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, was “clearly a victim of unwarranted revenge tactics, targeted for no more than whom he is married to.”
“David’s detention was unlawful and inexcusable. He was detained under a law that violates any principle of fairness and his detention shows how the law can be abused for petty vindictive reasons,” Brown said.
