It appears that its international director, Muhammad Rabbani, a UK citizen, was arrested at Heathrow airport in November for refusing to hand over passwords. To be fair, border control officials know Rabbani well and have detained him at least 20 times over the past decade when entering the UK, under schedule 7 of terrorism legislation.

This was the first time he had been arrested. When asked for his passwords, he refused and eventually his devices were returned to him and he went home. However, this time, when he refused to reveal his passwords, he was arrested under schedule 7 provisions of the terrorism act and held overnight at Heathrow Polar Park police station before being released on bail. He will be charged on Wednesday.

Rabbani thinks that the real reason why people are being arrested for refusing to hand over passwords is nothing to do with terrorism. Instead it is being used as a tool to build up a huge data bank on thousands of UK citizens.

Jim Killock, executive director of the UK-based Open Rights Group agreed saying that investigations should take place when there is actual suspicion, and the police should be able to justify their actions on that basis, rather than using wide-ranging powers designed for border searches.