The Hindu : International : U.K. to tighten anti-terror laws

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Monday, Apr 26, 2004

International

International

U.K. to tighten anti-terror laws

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, APRIL 25. Britain is to tighten further its draconian anti-terror laws to bar courts from releasing those the Government regards as a threat to national security.

This follows the Government's embarrassment over the release of an Algerian suspect who had been held in a high-security prison for more than two years under controversial laws which allow foreign terror suspects to be detained indefinitely without trial.

The 35-year-old detainee, alleged to be a high-profile Al-Qaeda operative and identified simply as `G' for security reasons, was ordered by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission to be released on bail and placed under house arrest, after his lawyers argued that his continued incarceration had started to affect his mental health.

Fearing that his release could open the floodgates for other such detainees to appeal, the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, announced that the Government "will have to amend the law'' to prevent courts from intervening.

An angry Mr. Blunkett, who has been consistently at loggerheads with judges on the issue, called the release of the Algerian suspect `extraordinary', and a spokesperson for the Prime Minster, Tony Blair, insisted that `G' posed a "risk to national security.''

"Allowing someone like this out on bail is an extraordinary decision which puts massive pressure on our anti-terror and security services, and sends a very different signal to the one we have been sending,'' Mr. Blunkett said adding the Government would take "whatever steps'' necessary to protect the public.

Civil rights campaigners accused the Government of trampling upon human rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said the Government had demonstrated a "terrible contempt for the rule of law'' by detaining people indefinitely without trial. Amnesty International called Mr. Blunkett's reaction `disconcerting.'

The solicitor for `G', Gareth Peirce, said what happened to her client should not happen to anyone in a "civilised society''. "The Home Secretary has tried to stop this man from getting out and getting sane. He drove this man to madness.

This should not happen in a civilised society,'' she said amid widespread criticism of the Government's powers of indefinite detention.

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