15/09/2005

Seven detained in anti-terror raids

Seven foreign nationals have been detained following raids in London and Manchester.

Six men were detained after police raided a number of locations in London and one man was held after a raid at a property in Manchester.

Police officers from the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police supported immigration officials during the series of raids.

It is understood that the men are alleged to pose a threat to national security.

The Home Office confirmed that seven people had been detained under the 1971 Immigration Act and were being held in “secure prison service accommodation”.

A Home Office spokesperson said that the men had been detained in accordance with Home Secretary Charles Clarke’s powers to “deport individuals whose presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good for reasons of national security.”

The spokesperson said that the men’s names would not be released, nor would the location of where they were being held.

The men are being held under the same powers used to detain 10 other foreign nationals, including radical cleric Abu Qatada.

The detentions took place as Mr Clarke unveiled plans for new anti-terror legislation, including plans to allow terror suspects to be held for three months, the introduction of new offences, including one of incitement to terrorism and plans to prosecute shops, which sell extremist literature.

The Home Secretary is hoping to pass the new legislation, introduced in the wake of July’s suicide bomb attacks in London, through Parliament quickly in the autumn.

(KMcA/SP)

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