Britain's highest court has ruled that the government cannot hold foreign terror suspects indefinitely without trial.
The court was deciding the cases of nine Muslim men jailed without charge for up to three years under the controversial Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act.
The ruling is a major blow for the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, which had argued that the detention without trial of some terror suspects is necessary in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The head of the nine-judge panel, Thomas Bingham, said after the ruling that "the measures are unjustifiably discriminatory against foreign nationals as they require the detentions of some, but not all, those who present the same risk."
Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
