The appeal court in December ruled that Yunus Rahmatullah, 29, is being unlawfully detained in the notorious US jail at Bagram in Afghanistan. It ordered a writ of habeas corpus to be issued so he could be freed. Rahmatullah was handed over by the SAS to American forces in Iraq in 2004, from where he was taken to Bagram. He has been there ever since.

However, the appeal court ruled on Thursday that it had no power, after all, to order the man‘s release.