Blair backs 90-day detention plans

Prime Minister Tony Blair has backed controversial plans to detain terror suspects for 90 days without charge, as the government published its proposed anti-terror legislation.

Speaking during the Prime Minister’s monthly press conference, Mr Blair said that there was a “compelling” case for a three-month detention period for terror suspects. He said: “This terrorist activity is of a wholly different order from anything we have faced before in this country. We need to make sure that we give ourselves every possible opportunity to prevent such terrorist acts occurring.”

The Prime Minister said that in such cases police had to intervene and arrest suspects earlier, as well as hold them for longer in order to collect evidence. He said: “They [the police] cannot to let them mount up the conspiracy and they cannot wait for the moment that otherwise with a different kind of offence they might, so they lift them early.

“For that reason, it is only after they actually lift them that they are able to complete a lot of the investigations that they are carrying out and that is why what they say, when they go through the various reasons why they need this time they say, for example, that the forensic requirements in modern terrorist cases are far more complex and time consuming than in the past, particularly where there is the possibility of chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear hazards.”

However, on Tuesday, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said that the proposed 90-day limit was “not God-given” and admitted that achieving a cross-party consensus on the proposed anti-terror legislation was unlikely without some concessions.

Mr Clarke published the government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation on Wednesday. Aside from the proposals to increase the maximum detention period for terror suspects from 14 days to 90 days, it includes plans to create new offences, outlawing “encouragement or glorification of terrorism”; extremist bookshops and receiving terrorist training or attending ‘terrorist training camps’.

The Home Secretary also announced plans to strengthen the UK’s ability to deny asylum to terrorists and speed up the removal of people being deported on grounds of national security under the Immigration and Nationality Bill.

Mr Clarke said: "The recent terror attacks in London and elsewhere make it absolutely clear that we must adapt to be able to meet the changing nature of the terror threat facing us. It is vital that our law enforcement agencies have the tools they need to combat new and emerging terror threats, as the nature and tactics of terrorism evolves and changes.

"Clearly, we must strike a careful balance between the rights of individuals and the protection of society. But we are operating in an environment where we must do all we can to protect out way of life from those who would try to destroy it through violence and fear."

(KMcA)