Britain Detention Guardian Newspaper Co-Partner Arouses Criticism

The British authorities' detention of the Brazilian-born partner of a Guardian newspaper journalist has aroused criticism and concerns among British politicians, lawyers as well as the Brazilian government.

Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald has written stories based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. London police detained Greenwald's partner David Miranda for nine hours under anti-terror legislation at Heathrow airport on Sunday, according to British officials.

Airport authorities interrogated Miranda for the maximum time allowed by the anti-terrorism act without lodging a formal charge and confiscated his laptop, cell phone, camera, memory cards, DVDs, and even a games console.

Vaz said that Britain's move is not based on solid facts and will hurt the country's image. He urged the British government to give an explanation on the detention.

Miranda, who arrived in Rio de Janeiro early Monday, announced that he and his lawyers would take legal action over the hours-long detention.

A day after Miranda's detention by the British authority, another Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger revealed that agents of the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had ordered the Guardian to destroy computer hard drives containing classified material leaked by Edward Snowden.

Many journalists came to the Guardian's headquarters to make live report on Tuesday. They said that the destruction of hard drives is yet another scandal in UK's journalism industry.