The Court of Appeal appeared particularly bold in this formerly ‘forbidden’ area in the more recent case of Rahmatullah v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2012] UKSC 48. The court issued a writ of habeas corpus requiring the government to seek the return of a Pakistani national detained without trial in Afghanistan by the United States following his capture by UK forces in Iraq. The decision did not amount to an instruction to the government to demand the detainee's return but reflected the court's conclusion that there were sufficient grounds for believing that the UK had the means of obtaining control over the detainee's custody.