Protesters Demonstrate Outside Terror Suspects' Prison
AP 2004/10/3
London
Human rights campaigners staged a rally today outside a high-security prison to protest anti-terror laws that allow suspects to be held indefinitely without trial.
About 50 people gathered outside Belmarsh jail in London, urging Home Secretary David Blunkett to release detainees being held there without charge or else accuse them of specific crimes.
"The use of detention without trial damages the legal system, damages the fight against terrorism and damages Britain's reputation internationally," said Shami Chakrabarti, director of the rights group Liberty. "We need an alternative now that ends this injustice."
The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, passed within weeks of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, permits the indefinite detention of foreign nationals suspected of terrorist offenses if they cannot be safely removed to another country.
The law allows police to arrest and continue to hold foreign nationals if there are "reasonable grounds to suspect" links to terror groups. The law also allows officials to keep the allegations secret from both the prisoners and their lawyers on the grounds of public safety.
Seventeen people have been arrested under the law and held without charge, and 11 remain in custody, the Home Office has said.
Britain's highest court, a panel of judges sitting in the House of Lords, is scheduled to begin hearings Monday on the legality of the detentions.
|
