David Miranda, partner of journalist, Glenn Greenwald, is seeking legal action against the government for his nine hour detainment at Heathrow Airport last weekend.
BBC News reports that Miranda was held under the pretense of anti-terror laws and was threatened with prison time if he failed to provide passwords to email and social media accounts. He was targeted as the partner to Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist covering stories surrounding Edward Snowden and the U.S. National Security Agency surveillance program.
NPR quoted Greenwald, “to start detaining the family members and loved ones of journalists is simply despotic. Even the Mafia had ethical rules against targeting the family members of people they felt threatened by.”
The United Kingdom defended its detention of Miranda as a necessary precaution to the safety of the state.
The UK Home Office responded to criticsm: “if the police believe that an individual is in possession of highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism, then they should act and the law provides them with a framework to do that [...] Those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what they are condoning,” reports The Washington Post.
Miranda is currently at home in Brazil.