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Britain plans tougher laws on terrorism

PLA Daily 2004-02-03

LONDON, Feb. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The British government is planning tougher anti-terrorism laws so as to make it easier to convict British suicide bombers and terror suspects before they carry out any attack, Home Secretary David Blunkett announced Monday.

Under his wide ranging proposals, judges would be allowed to use the lower criteria of convicting a defendant if they think he is probably guilty or on a balance of probabilities.

The trials would be presided over by judges vetted by the secret services or even held in secret without juries.

Lawyers defending the accused would also have to be vetted and some evidence withheld from them to stop sensitive information leading back to defendants and terror groups.

Blunkett, who is on his trip in India, was quoted by media reports here that the threat from suicide bombers was now so great that the burden of proof in British courts may have to be lowered.

"It needs to be presented in a way that doesn't allow disclosure by any of the parties involved which would destroy your security services," he said.

His proposals would effectively create a hybrid between the existing trial system and emergency powers which have so far allowed indefinitely internment of 16 foreign terror suspects without charge or trial, analysts said.

However, civil rights groups here condemned the plans as "wholly unacceptable."

Liberty campaigns director Mark Littlewood said: "Britain already has the most draconian anti-terror laws in western Europe."

"To add to these by further undermining trial by jury and radically reducing the burden of proof is wholly unacceptable," he said.

The Muslim Council of Britain warned that innocent members of the Muslim community could find themselves targeted under the plans.

"Lowering the burden of proof required to obtain convictions appears to be allowing the terrorists to succeed because it would undermine our own values in the UK," a spokesman for the council said.