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Asecret trial is a trial that is not open to the public or generally reported in the news, especially any in-trial proceedings. Generally, no official record of the case or the judge's verdict is made available. Often there is no indictment.
Secret trials have been characteristic of many dictatorships in the modern era, but are also used in many democratic nations, with the explanation of being necessary for national security. They are a hotly debated topic in many circles, but are generally accepted in the western world as they are seen as protecting the "greater good".
It is possible that some wholly-secret trials occurred in Australia during World War IorWorld War II.[1] In the 21st century, several secret trials have occurred or are set to occur in Australia:
Although the Great Purges in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin are best remembered for the Moscow Trials, show trials in which the court became a parody of justice, most of the victims of the Terror were tried in secret. Mikhail Tukhachevsky and his fellow Red Army officers were tried in secret by a military tribunal, and their executions were announced only after the fact. The presiding judge of the Moscow Trials, Vasili Ulrikh, also presided over large numbers of secret trials, lasting only a few minutes, in which he would quickly speak his way through a pre-formulated charge and verdict.
In the United Kingdom, one of the most notorious secret courts was the Star Chamber under King Charles I of England in the early 17th century. The abuses of the Star Chamber were one of the rallying points of the opposition that organized around Oliver Cromwell and ultimately resulted in the execution of the deposed king. The term "star chamber" became a generalized term for a court that was accountable to no one (except the chief executive) and was used to suppress political dissent or eliminate the enemies of the regime.
R v Incedal and Rarmoul-Bouhadjar (2014) was to be the first British trial to be held entirely in secret.[3] However, the Court of Appeal blocked full secrecy.[4]
The FISA Courts of the national intelligence apparatus are by design secret courts and are empowered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to conduct secret trials and to impose secret punishments. Counsel arguing in the court are also subject to a secrecy order against disclosure of information about any cases in front of the court. Individuals who have been targeted in the court are also subjected to secrecy orders. The court sits ex parte, in the absence of anyone but the judge and the government present at the hearings. That, combined with the minimal number of requests that are rejected by the court, has led experts to characterize it as a rubber stamp; the former National Security Agency analyst Russ Tice called it a "kangaroo court with a rubber stamp".[5]
