UK to replace control orders, Clegg confirms
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Jan 7, IRNA -- Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, confirmed on Friday that control orders used against terrorist suspects will be replaced by the coalition government, ending the 'virtual house arrest' of terror suspects.
In a keynote London speech on civil liberties, Clegg said the coalition is 'embarking on a mission to restore our great British freedoms', lambasted the previous Labour government for eroding the fundamental rights of citizens.
An announcement on replacing controversial control orders, which have been found to breach the European Convention on Human Rights, is expected when parliament returns next week, but the deputy prime minister admitted no final agreement had been reached by ministers.
He also refused to say whether control orders, which can impose home curfews of up to 16 hours a day on unconvicted suspects, would be abolished entirely.
Apart from previously-trailed plans to reform the defamation laws by making them simpler, less costly and clamping down practice of 'libel tourism', Clegg's speech was low on any specific new proposals.
The government's 'first duty is to keep the British people safe', but more account needed to be taken of civil liberties while countering terrorism, he said.
'The coalition government is going to turn a page on the Labour years, restructuring the liberties that have been lost, embarking on a mission to restore our great British freedoms.”
Last July, three Court of Appeal judges cleared the way for two terrorist suspects to claim damages from the British government for having control orders wrongly imposed on them for three and a half years.
Previously the joint committee on human rights as well as the all-party home affairs committee have urged the government to abandon their use, saying that they cost too much and caused 'untold damage to the UK's international reputation.”
Control orders were originally introduced in 2005 to restrict the movements of terrorist suspects, where there is considered to be inadequate evidence to gain a successful prosecution.
They were brought in to target foreign suspects, who could not be deported, but were amended to also include British nationals after the European Court ruled that the application was discriminatory.
The House of Lords has also ruled that the use of control orders based on secret evidence were unlawful and subsequently led to several being lifted.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
