Walk the line

During an unseasonably warm week in February, the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand became the focal point of an unprecedented level of media and public attention. Each morning, queues to enter the High Court through the airport-like security snaked out of the doors and onto the street. Celebrity trials involving the McCartneys’ multimillion-pound divorce and Mohamed Al Fayed’s ever-more bizarre attacks on the British establishment were in full flow.

But on Thursday and Friday of that week, it was the public gallery of court number one that was full to overflowing. Members of the public and the press rubbed shoulders – almost literally – with whistleblowers and legal advisers, activists and campaigners, all eager to witness the next twist in the long-running BAE saga. Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner House were bringing judicial review proceedings against the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Robert Wardle (who is standing down to be replaced by Richard Alderman on 20 April), in an attempt to get the investigation into the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia reopened. BAE was joined as an interested party.

When the campaigners filed their original letter before claim, they had been seeking to join the Prime Minister and the former Attorney General as defendants. However, they were subsequently dropped from the claim.

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