Lewis Goodall shares his exclusive story with James O’Brien.
The government spent nearly two years using an unprecedented superinjunction to prevent the public from learning about a catastrophic Ministry of Defence data breach that exposed the personal details of thousands of Afghans who had worked with UK forces.
The breach involved the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) — a scheme set up to offer sanctuary in the UK to Afghans who supported British military operations during the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
More than 18,000 applicants were affected, with names and contact details , email addresses and phone numbers leaked. When family members are included, the number of people potentially put at risk rises to around 100,000.
The MoD sought and was granted a contra mundum superinjunction — a rare legal order that not only barred publication of the story but also prevented anyone from revealing that an injunction even existed. In court, it was described as “constitutionally unprecedented”.
The News Agents’ and LBC presenter Lewis Goodall was barred from reporting it and initially forbidden from even informing his editor. Court hearings were held in secret, with even media lawyers excluded from “closed sessions”.
The injunction was originally presented as a short-term emergency measure to protect lives while the government identified and helped those most at risk.
But subsequent hearings revealed that the number of people the MOD planned on assisting was just 200 individuals, plus their dependents — a fraction of those affected. Eventually, though there is some dispute about the figures, at least 6900 people have now been brought over as a result of the breach.
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