28 Days To Lose Your Freedom

IS 28 says long enough to hold a terror suspect without charge? Defeated 18 months ago,when the matter came before Parliament, the Government has had time to think of a valid reason to extend the time.

Today’s paper on counter-terrorism will not contain any proposals for a new upper limit, such as a compromise of 45 days, but instead will set out alternative options including allowing post-charge questioning for the first time in British law.Ms Smith [Home Secretary] told MPs she was convinced it was necessary to go beyond the 28-day limit; she said that in the last nine months the number of terror suspects “actively engaged” in complex plots, often with an international dimension, and some involving potential suicide bombing in Britain, had risen from 1,600 to 2,000.

The home secretary told the all-party Commons home affairs select committee yesterday that in recent police anti-terror operations the 28-day limit “has been pushed”. She cited cases where six terror suspects had been held for 27 to 28 days before three of them were charged. The recent attempted bombings in Glasgow and London strengthened the case.

So 28 days is long enough.

“This all gives us a strong view that the time is right to reconsider whether we should allow longer than 28 days’ pre-charge detention,” she said. “There is already evidence of us stepping up to the point of 28 days. All of this creates what I would argue is a trend of analysis towards a position where it is legitimate for us to consider again the case for going beyond the current situation of the maximum 28 days. The document will outline what we know about that trend and will contain a discussion of the alternatives, but it will not plump for one solution.”

A trend? Or shoddy policing and a lack of proof when the suspect is dragged in?

Anorak

Posted: 25th, July 2007 | In: Twitterings Comments (3) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink