Britain’s most senior judge has backed the removal of veils by witnesses in trials, citing Koranic sources in support of her view.
Baroness Hale of Richmond, the president of the Supreme Court, said that it was not for her to give guidance to the courts of England and Wales as to the right approach in such cases. However, she said: “We do take it for granted in this country that observing a person’s facial expressions, body language and general demeanour are an important part of assessing their credibility.”
Some Koranic sources seemed to share that view, she said in the Sultan Azlan Shah lecture given at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in January but not released until yesterday.
She added: “Our adversarial trial system depends crucially on testing a witness’s evidence through crossexamination — I suspect that most advocates would find it difficult to imagine how one would cross-examine a witness whose face one could not see.” [The Times (£)] Read more
