Should terror suspects be held for up to 42 days without charge?
Should terror suspects be held for up to 42 days without charge? That's the battle the government faces tonight in a crucial vote. Rizwaan Sabir is a student from Nottingham who, along with his university administrator Hisham Yezza, was held without charge for six days after downloading an Al Qaeda training manual while researching his Phd.
You can listen to the interview here.
The Former Head of the Met Lord Stevens today says the police need to have something in their back pocket to hold someone for 42 days in exceedingly exceptional circumstances.
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How can a so called fair and just society justify an increase in the time allowed to detain suspects?
I don't recall such measures worked with the IRA a few decades back. They just bred more resentment and anger. It was fairer minded diplomacy that improved the situation then.
I listened to the interview with Rizwaan Sabir, and cannot imagine what horrors he must have suffered. I ask anyone who supports longer detention without charge to think about what this treatment says about us as a nation.
I cannot imagine what suffering the victims of terrorism feel either, but alienating sections of our society in this way will surely lead to an escalation of trouble.
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I once believed that I lived in a country that served the people and kept them safe. I don?t believe that anymore. Maybe I was young and naïve and didn?t understand, but I know now that under this government the world I would be living in is one of tyranny. Many bills have been put forward by this government that destroy what Britain is. Luckily we have an opposition and those bills have been rejected, deferred or watered down. The truth is this government are pushing for things that are disgusting.
I will never agree to 42 days, just as I didn?t agree with 90 days, you can forget it.
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There are sufficient laws to hold suspects for as long as the Police need. First, suspend the Human Rights Act for individuals through 'derogation'.
Deport immediately all those suspected of terrorist sympathies and arrest those who are naive enough to believe this Muslim extremism - try going to a Catholic Church in Saudi Arabia. Immediately re-educate - un-brainwash - those infected with the hatred of the people of these islands. We are told we risk alienating a large section of the Muslim minority if we persecute them. 57 people would love the right to be persecuted by the State had not the Muslim extremist taken their right for life away from them. Once sufficient evidence is found to arrest, do so, continue interrogation and add charges on even after conviction if needed.
Make Parliament Govern for this country and not kowtow to Europe. So why did they promulgate the Civil Contingencies Act? To waste more trees on needless paperwork/
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How do you know what he said is the truth?
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At this rate we will function creep our way into the horror that is 1984. It has to stop now or it will be too late. The attacks against our freedom to be independent and free Britons are now comparable to those we faced in 1940, but they are political, not physical. This makes them more insidious and harder to fight.
I want to live in a country that protects what Britain is, works hard to create our wealth on the world stage and upholds the idea of democracy. Unfortunately nobody in parliament seems to be interested.
Many acts have been put forward by ZanuNL that would make Stalin blush, and it is only the opposition in parliament that has stopped them getting what they want. Looking at the original proposals is truly frightening.
Vote Labour; get socialism, repackaging it as New didn?t change the ideology, just the shiny wrapper.
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ronxray,
Didn't you hear that the BBC is banned from lying?
I also hear that police paper chains are so long that a blind dog with one leg could hunt them down.
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One of the founders of the American state said about this subject "Those who would trade a little liberty for a little security will lose both, and deserve neither"
We have a government which is bent on removing as many of our hard fought liberties as possible, in the name of the party.
This was Blair`s legacy.
This measure should be voted down, even if it means that the prime minister has to resign.
Our freedoms are much more important than any party, and I am disgusted that we should have the country where Magna Carta originated wishing to remove freedoms, not uphold them!!
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The MP spouting about 'getting your legs blown off' more scare mongering ! BUT--if that guy STILL thinks WTC1 WTC2 and Builbing 7 were blown up by 19 arabs controlled by a guy in a cave in Afghanistan, then god help the UK!!!
42 days?? Internment made matters much worse in N Ireland.
Get evidence and charge people! Simple eh?
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How long before people are wrongly locked up for 45 days for being 'terrorists'? After all what exactly is a 'terrorist'?
Stalin thought 30 million+ people were 'terrorists' and should be shot! Anyone who thinks this of all governments should be given the power to lock it's political enemies (because that's who it will ultimately be used against) up for 8 weeks without a trial (ie on a meer suspicion) needs their head examined.
The bill will be passed. Gutless coward New Labour MP's would pass a bill allowing Cornwall to be nuked if Brown told them to. They are associates in the destruction of our democracy by the New Labour regime.
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I can't believe some of the comments I heard on the programme and read on this blog. Some people think that police suspicion is sufficient reason to imprison someone. Dream on. The miscarriages of justice we experienced when just 7 days were available to fit them up and before someone was charged are still fresh in my memory. The experience of the Birmigham Six, the Guildford Four and others expose this mentality for the sloppy thinking it is.
The interview with Samir was eye-opening and shows clearly how one can be caught up in the witch hunt. I thought he was eloquent and sincere and demonstrably experienced a very frightening situation. Without a charge to answer the police have significant power and can undermine the confidence of even the most law-abiding citizen.
Its amazing how easily we are sleepwalking into tyranny. Guilt must be established by a court of law and charges must be brought swiftly or else the arrested person released. Just because the police arrest you does not mean you are guilty!
In Australia a doctor was implicated in the Glasgow attacks and his life destroyed. Of course, not one shred of evidence existed but he was not released until the damage was done - and then deported to cover up for the lack of evidence. He's since won through but it is becoming clearer that more innocent people will be crushed in pursuit of phantoms.
Steve
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With regard to detention for 42 days, maybe we should detain fathers who think that they can murder, not kill, murder, their children.
These men who murder their children and then commit suicide, how are they different from the suicide bombers?
This man who has just murered his children should still be tried, in public with a jury, and if he is found guilty then he still should hang. If there is a place called hell and there is a God then this man must surely go to that place.
The same with suicide bombers who think they will go to heaven with many virgins. Let's bring back hell, the devil and downright evil. No amount of surveillance, detention for 42 days, will stop the murders.
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