Power sought to detain suspects without charge: British govt proposes fresh anti-terror steps
LONDON, Sept 15: Britain’s interior minister tried to rally support on Thursday for a raft of new anti-terror laws, including a controversial plan to hold security suspects for up to three months without charge.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke also wants to allow terror suspects to give information in return for lighter sentences — so-called intelligence interviews — and he hopes to create an offence of “glorifying terrorism”.
The measures form part of a package of rules and draft legislation that have been drawn up by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings in London that left 56 people dead.
Keen to push the laws through parliament as quickly as possible, Clarke is trying to build a cross-party consensus with the main opposition Conservatives and the smaller Liberal Democrats.
But signs of disagreement have started to appear, with the Tories and Lib Dems expressing concerns, particularly over the proposal to extend the police’s detention powers over suspects from two weeks to three months.
Blair, speaking during a series of interviews at a UN summit in New York, justified the need to support longer detention periods with legislation.
“I want to do my best to protect the country and here are the police saying we need to extend the period of detention, well okay as long as there is judicial oversight,” he was quoted as saying by Britain’s Press Association news agency.
“I’d prefer to do this by consensus, I would obviously prefer this but it may not be possible to do that.”
Clarke wrote a letter to his opposition counterparts outlining the measures and explaining the necessity to act against the threat of further attacks.
The draft Terrorism Bill contained a number of other new powers already discussed by the government including “preparation of terrorist acts”, carrying up to life imprisonment, and “encouraging terrorism” by indirect incitement, carrying up to seven years.
Providing or undertaking any kind of terrorism training will also become a specific offence, with a maximum term of 10 years in jail.
Turning to the supergrass plan, Clarke wrote: “Our preliminary legal advice is that such intelligence interviews would be legal but further work will be needed, including drawing up necessary codes of practice, before any such interviews could take place.”
Evidence from the proposed interviews could not be used against the person supplying it, but police and security services could glean valuable details about other terror suspects, and possibly prevent future attacks.
In return, the informant could expect a shorter sentence because the judge would be told about their co-operation, legal sources, quoted by the Press Association, said.
Clarke said the offences were still in draft form and would be refined before the bill is introduced on Parliament’s return next month.
Conservative home affairs spokesman David Davis welcomed the package of anti-terror measures, while noting that they needed careful consideration.
“We are particularly concerned, however, about the proposal to extend the maximum period of detention prior to charge for three months,” he said.
His fears were echoed by his Lib Dem counterpart Mark Oaten, who also found fault with the proposed offence of glorifying terrorism.—AFP
