Let him who is without sin.....
DRACONIAN anti-terrorist laws which will put Britain into direct conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights are to be set out out this week as new evidence emerges that Britain could be targeted for attack.
Increased powers of arrest for the police to interrogate suspects and moves to abolish some rights of judicial appeal for immigrants turned back at airports will figure in up to three separate emergency Bills to go before Parliament.
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The Terrorism Act made it harder for terrorist groups to operate in Britain, by proscribing 21 named organisations - 16 of them Islamic - including Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda group.
The proscribed list makes it difficult for these groups to advertise, such as on websites, or trying to recruit without coming to police attention and facing arrest.
Once a group has been designated as a terrorist organisation, it is a crime to belong to the group, support it financially, display its emblems, or share a platform with known members. Groups on the list can ask to be removed and lodge an appeal with an independent tribunal. So far, four organisations have asked to be removed; two requests were rejected and the other two are being considered.
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Is France a democracy, jttmab? Yes? No?
In France, after the terrorist attacks by Algerians in the mid-1990s, magistrates were given powers to hold suspects almost indefinitely while inquiries continued. But such powers run counter to the British legal concept of habeas corpus and would fall foul of the Human Rights Act.
What else could be done? The most draconian measure, which would be considered in the case of a formally declared war, is internment. Emergency powers did exist to intern suspected terrorists in Northern Ireland, though the practice has not been used since the mid-1970s. The Government removed internment powers two years ago as part of the Northern Ireland political process.
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