Dr Saeed Shehabi and Moosa Mohammed, both Bahraini activists living in London, brought claims for psychiatric injury, alleging the Bahraini government used FinFisher spyware to infiltrate their computers while they were living in London in 2011. The kingdom argued it was protected by s 5 of the State Immunity Act 1978, since some of the acts were not located in the UK.
Ruling in The Kingdom of Bahrain v Shehabi and another [2026] UKSC 25 this week, however, the Supreme Court held modern technology enables acts of surveillance to be carried out in the UK remotely, such acts infringe UK territorial sovereignty, and it was ‘clear and unambiguous’ that s 5 did not confer immunity.
Ida Aduwa, senior associate at Leigh Day, acting for the claimants, said the ruling ‘made clear that state immunity cannot be used as a shield for the targeting of critics on British soil’.
