BRITISH intelligence agency GCHQ illegally spied on two human rights organisations, a tribunal found yesterday.

The organisation was found to have acted unlawfully in the way it intercepted private communications of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa.

GCHQ even breached is own confidential internal policies on the interception, examination and retention of emails from the two organisations, thereby violating their rights under article eight of the Human Rights Act, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal found.

James Welch, legal director of Liberty, one of several national human rights groups that brought the action against GCHQ, said: “Last year, it was revealed that GCHQ were eavesdropping on sacrosanct lawyer-client conversations.

“Now we learn they’ve been spying on human rights groups.

“What kind of signal are British authorities sending to despotic regimes and those who risk their lives to challenge them all over the world? Who is being casual with human life now?”