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Clarke setting out
terror policy
The home secretary is to set out his plans for foreign terror
suspects after law lords ruled their detention without charge breaks
human rights laws. Charles Clarke is believed to be considering a
form of house detention for the 12 men affected by the ruling.
Deals are already being sought to deport some of the men, who are
from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan.
Mr Clarke will address MPs a day after the remaining four Britons
held at Guantanamo Bay returned to the UK.
BBC political editor Andrew Marr said he had been told the "least
bad" option being discussed for the 12 detainees was "some kind of
secure detention at home".
Such an option would involve "very strict rules about not being
allowed to use computers and so on". They would also be watched
closely.
Such arrangements are already being used for one suspect freed
because of mental illness.
Most of the terror suspects are being held indefinitely at Belmarsh
prison, in London, under emergency powers brought in after the 11
September 2001 attacks in the US.
Under the government's anti-terrorism legislation, they would be
freed if they agreed to leave the UK. They cannot be deported as
they might face torture or death in their countries of origin.
'Second best'
The law lords ruled last month that the measures were incompatible
with European human rights laws. They were particularly worried that
the detention powers were discriminatory as they applied only to
foreign terror suspects.
That concern could mean any house arrest plan covers all terror
suspects, whether UK citizens or from overseas.
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said his first preference
would be for any suspects to be put on trial, possibly using
wire-tap evidence.
A house arrest plan would be a "second best option", he said,
especially as some senior legal figures had warned the proposal
could amount to indefinite detention.
"The difficulty that arises here is that we could find ourselves
still out of step with aspects of the European Convention [on Human
Rights]," said Mr Kennedy.
Court action threat
Human rights group Liberty has welcomed Mr Clarke's decision to
respond to the Lords' criticism.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the group, said: "The new home
secretary is to be commended for finally responding to the damning
ruling that detention without trial is alien to our democracy."
She said she hoped the government would introduce laws that "conform
fully" with European human rights legislation.
Solicitor Gareth Peirce, who represents eight of the detainees, has
already warned if there is no swift government action on the issue,
the detainees could ask the European Court of Human Rights to get
involved.
The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court
of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit
or charge, saying there was a state of emergency threatening the
life of the nation.
The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human
Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in
anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks.
Source: BBC News
26 January 2005
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