Britons Want To Know Why David Miranda Was Detained Under an Anti-Terrorism Law

Since they wanted information about inconvenient journalism

LONDON — Demands grew on Monday for the British government to explain why it had used antiterrorism powers to detain the partner of a journalist who has written about surveillance programs based on leaks by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden.

 David Michael Miranda, a Brazilian citizen and the partner of the American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, was held Sunday at Heathrow Airport in London for nine hours, the maximum allowed by law, before being released without charge.

"They were threatening me all the time and saying I would be put in jail if I didn't cooperate," Mr. Miranda said Tuesday in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, where Mr. Greenwald is a columnist. "They treated me like I was a criminal or someone about to attack the U.K."