Secret trial

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Secret trial" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article's factual accuracy about US law and jurisprudence and that of "western nations" generally's factual accuracy is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on Talk:Secret trial. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A secret trial is a trial that is not open to the public or generally reported in the news, especially any in-trial proceedings. Generally, no official record of the case or the judge's verdict is made available. Often there is no indictment.

Secret trials have been characteristic of many dictatorships in the modern era, but are also used in many democratic nations, with the explanation of being necessary for national security. They are a hotly debated topic in many circles, but are generally accepted in the western world as they are seen as protecting the "greater good".