We read with interest the Benchmarks item on forced marriage protection orders (see [2009] Gazette, 23 July, 19).

The article concludes with the following remark in respect of the case of Dr Humayra Abedin: ‘…the English proceedings having been withdrawn because the victim was not a British national’.

I represented Dr Abedin within the proceedings. The English proceedings were not at any time withdrawn and indeed the orders remain extant.

The fact that Dr Abedin is not a British national is irrelevant. The jurisdiction was based on the fact that Dr Abedin is habitually resident in the jurisdiction of England and Wales and that is what is set out in the judgment of Mr Justice Coleridge.

A full judgment is being handed down in this matter shortly.

Anne-Marie Hutchinson OBE, Hassan Khan, Dawson Cornwell, London