Abbey Normal
Senior Member
Britain is getting tough. Good. I wonder if they have a "BCLU" to screw it up for them...
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Excerpts from article:
LONDON - Britain is considering setting up secretive courts to make it easier to prosecute terror suspects and to hold them without charge for longer than the current 14 days as part of the crackdown following the deadly London bombings, officials said Tuesday.
The Home Office said it was weighing changing the pretrial process to deal with particularly sensitive terror cases, with the aim of "securing more prosecutions." Currently, terror suspects can be held for two weeks without charge; after they are charged, police can no longer question them. Police have asked the government to extend this period to three months.
The anti-terror courts run by judges with high-level security clearance would meet behind closed doors to study the merits of the case against terror suspects, rule on highly sensitive evidence and decide how long the suspect could be held, The Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday, citing unidentified Home Office officials.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because government policy bars her from being quoted by name, confirmed a new pretrial procedure is under consideration, but couldn't provide any other details.
"I want to emphasize: There is no question of secret trials, there is no question of jury-less trials, there is no question of any sort of internment," Britain's chief legal official, Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer, told the British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "What is being suggested is ... just a sensible period to detain suspects while a sensible investigation is going on."...
Other measures being considered by the government involve turning up the pressure on radical Muslim clerics believed to support the militants.
Amid growing calls to charge some clerics under incitement and treason laws, one of the most radical firebrand leaders left Britain.
Sheik Omar Bakri, who earned a reputation for extremism during his 20 years in Britain, announced Tuesday that he was in Lebanon. Bakri said he was visiting relatives.
"Enjoy your holiday make it a long one," Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said when asked about Bakri at a news conference. Bakri has dual Syrian and Lebanese citizenship, and has permission to live in Britain.
...Bakri has made it clear that if he is told that he is not welcome in Britain, he won't return, Choudary said. "Good," Prescott said when told that.
...Home Secretary Charles Clarke already has wide-ranging powers to exclude people from the country if he finds their "presence is not conducive to the public good" or based on national security reasons, the Home Office spokeswoman said.
...
Entire article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050809/ap_on_re_eu/britain_bombings
---------------------------------
Excerpts from article:
LONDON - Britain is considering setting up secretive courts to make it easier to prosecute terror suspects and to hold them without charge for longer than the current 14 days as part of the crackdown following the deadly London bombings, officials said Tuesday.
The Home Office said it was weighing changing the pretrial process to deal with particularly sensitive terror cases, with the aim of "securing more prosecutions." Currently, terror suspects can be held for two weeks without charge; after they are charged, police can no longer question them. Police have asked the government to extend this period to three months.
The anti-terror courts run by judges with high-level security clearance would meet behind closed doors to study the merits of the case against terror suspects, rule on highly sensitive evidence and decide how long the suspect could be held, The Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday, citing unidentified Home Office officials.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because government policy bars her from being quoted by name, confirmed a new pretrial procedure is under consideration, but couldn't provide any other details.
"I want to emphasize: There is no question of secret trials, there is no question of jury-less trials, there is no question of any sort of internment," Britain's chief legal official, Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer, told the British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "What is being suggested is ... just a sensible period to detain suspects while a sensible investigation is going on."...
Other measures being considered by the government involve turning up the pressure on radical Muslim clerics believed to support the militants.
Amid growing calls to charge some clerics under incitement and treason laws, one of the most radical firebrand leaders left Britain.
Sheik Omar Bakri, who earned a reputation for extremism during his 20 years in Britain, announced Tuesday that he was in Lebanon. Bakri said he was visiting relatives.
"Enjoy your holiday make it a long one," Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said when asked about Bakri at a news conference. Bakri has dual Syrian and Lebanese citizenship, and has permission to live in Britain.
...Bakri has made it clear that if he is told that he is not welcome in Britain, he won't return, Choudary said. "Good," Prescott said when told that.
...Home Secretary Charles Clarke already has wide-ranging powers to exclude people from the country if he finds their "presence is not conducive to the public good" or based on national security reasons, the Home Office spokeswoman said.
...
Entire article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050809/ap_on_re_eu/britain_bombings
