LONDON, Aug 9: Britain’s top legal authority on Tuesday played down speculation that Islamic clerics could be tried for treason under a set of anti-terror measures that are being compiled following the London bombings. Lord Charles Falconer, secretary of state for constitutional affairs, however, warned that there were much better ways to bring criminal charges against extremist suspects, such as incitement laws.

The ancient charge of treason — one of the gravest on Britain’s statute books — was among a range of options explored by senior prosecutors and police officers at a meeting on Monday.

“I think it extraordinarily unlikely it is going to happen,” Falconer said.

“My own view is that treason is not really necessary or appropriate in relation to this,” Britain’s de facto justice minister told BBC radio.

The law of treason, which has developed over the years from the 1351 Treason Act and includes the Treason Felony Act 1848, has not been used since the 1940s and — since 1998 — no longer carries the ultimate punishment of death.

The charge, however, still delivers a heavy symbolic message and traitors are condemned to life imprisonment. At Monday’s meeting, officials discussed how to deal with three individuals, including Omar Bakri Mohammed, a cleric who left Britain over the weekend for Lebanon.

Falkoner noted, “There are other methods much better than treason in which proper criminal charges can be brought — for example, incitement. I don’t think anybody has seriously been suggesting that treason is a runner.”

John Spencer, a professor of law at Cambridge University, said resorting to treason legislation was ‘utterly pointless’.

“It seems to me utterly pointless to think about prosecuting any of these people for treason,” he told AFP.

“I think we have got more than enough criminal offences at the moment to convict any of these people if we can actually catch them and collect evidence.”

The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday that the treason idea had been discussed at the weekend by Lord Peter Goldsmith, the attorney-general, and Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, as they mulled action to be taken against supporters of the July 7 and July 21 attacks on London’s transport network.—AFP