Former residents of the Chagos Islands have launched their latest legal action arising from their forced removal from their homeland over 40 years ago.
They are asking the Court of Appeal to rule that a decision to create a marine park around the British-controlled islands in the Indian Ocean banning fishing is unlawful and violates their human rights.
The decision to create the park was upheld by the High Court in 2013, but lawyers for the exiled Chagossians say the judges went wrong in law and misdirected themselves.
The case raises for the first time the question whether a document leaked by WikiLeaks is admissible in evidence in an English court.
The park - referred to as a marine protected area (MPA) - was set up in 2010. Commercial fishing was banned through "no take" rules in areas where the former residents and their descendants would like to earn their living from fishing.
They say the reserve was created for the "improper purpose" of depriving them of a livelihood and discourage their return.
Many Chagossians gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London to protest and support their leader, Louis Bancoult, as he brought the appeal.
Nigel Pleming QC, for Mr Bancoult, told the appeal judges the last islanders were removed in May 1973 for the Americans, who built a US Air Force base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.
Mr Pleming said what had "echoed down history from the 1960s" and in a series of legal battles for the right of return was the "deeply offensive" reference to the islanders as "Man Fridays".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article