News

Expert challenges counter terrorism proposals

(24 January 2008)

The Government is announcing plans to extend the time terrorism suspects can be held before they are charged.

The Counter Terrorism Bill, due to be published later, proposes to extend the current limit from 28 days to 42 days. Senior Law lecturer at Durham University, Aaron Baker, has criticised these proposals. He suggests that extending imprisonment times for terrorist suspects is unnecessary. Mr Baker said: “Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claims that an additional 14 days are necessary because terrorism is ‘becoming more complicated’ and threatens ‘mass casualties.’ What she leaves out is that it is already possible for the government to extend the incarceration period in a given case if it can persuade the judiciary that it is ‘strictly necessary’ in a ‘national emergency’. “Surely if a case actually involves a threat of mass casualties and a uniquely complex investigative context, it would be straightforward to persuade a court of a state of emergency and a need for an extended period of custody. “Unfortunately, the government simply does not want to be bothered with proving anything in a courtroom setting. That is why they seek to frighten and bamboozle the public with hypothetical claims of catastrophe, and of complexity that the rest of us cannot hope to grasp, in order to get their extra time without actually proving the threat or complexity in any particular case.”