Almost 400 charged with terror offences
Almost 400 people have been charged with terrorism-related offences since September 2001, John Reid has said. The home secretary said 214 of the 387 charged have already been convicted, and 98 await trial. He highlighted the figures as an example of the “unremitting” struggle that Britain faced against terrorism, and which had at its heart […]
Courts ‘struggling to cope’ with terror cases
The courts system is struggling to cope with the high number of suspected terrorists coming to trial, a senior prosecutor has warned. Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS’s) counter-terrorism branch, said there was currently a backlog of 34 terrorism trials, including 99 defendants. “I am not sure our courts were actually geared […]
Human rights ‘key weapon’ in tackling terrorism
Human rights laws have “unquestionably” limited the government’s attempts to tackle terrorism – but that is a good thing, the lord chief justice has argued. Lord Phillips said fighting terrorism was not just a question of reacting to the actions of suspected terrorists, but about tackling the ideology that caused them to act in this […]
Al-Qaida ‘targeting Britain’
The July 7th bombings in London last year were “just the beginning” of al-Qaida’s plans for Britain, counter-terrorism officials have warned. Top security sources told the Guardian that Britain has become the main target for the terrorist organisation, which has successfully regrouped in Pakistan. “They viewed 7/7 as just the beginning. Al-Qaida sees the UK […]
PM hits back over terror suspect escapes
The government wanted to introduce tougher restrictions on terror suspects but was blocked by opposition parties and the courts, Tony Blair said today. He was speaking after it was revealed last night that two suspects had escaped – an Iraqi man evaded the security services in August, and a British man climbed out of a […]
Treasury urges action on terror finances
Blocking terrorist financing will be as important in the war on terror as fingerprinting and DNA has been to crime fighting in the past, Gordon Brown has said. The chancellor today called for new powers to stop payments to terror suspects in the UK and to use confidential intelligence, or closed source evidence, for the […]
Brown urges longer terror detention limit
Gordon Brown has today called for an extension in the time terror suspects can be held without charge. The 28-day limit was only introduced this year, up from 14 days, but the chancellor today said the threat posed by global terrorism meant “we should be prepared” to go beyond this. “In the past we could […]
July 7th victims ‘failed’
The government failed to give the victims and survivors of the July 7th bombings the support they needed after the terror attacks, a new Home Office report finds. The report praises the emergency response to the four bombs on the London transport network last year, but says lessons must be learned on helping victims. “In […]
11 charged over alleged airline plot
Eleven people have today been charged in connection with the alleged plot to blow up several transatlantic flights, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced. Head of the Metropolitan police anti-terrorist branch Peter Clarke also revealed that bomb-making equipment and “martyrdom videos” had been found during the investigations. In what he described as an “immense” […]
Giving in to paranoia ‘will hand victory to terrorists’
Airlines must resist giving in to passenger “paranoia” about terrorism to ensure that real terrorists do not succeed in their aim of spreading fear across the UK, an MP has warned. Muslim MP Khalid Mahmood was speaking after it emerged that two Asian passengers were ejected from a Monarch flight from Malaga to Manchester last […]
