|
UK terror plans face tough fight
Controversial government plans to keep terror suspects under house arrest rather than in jail could falter in parliament and fail to become law. The Conservatives declared on Wednesday they would oppose the new scheme, hastily drawn up after the highest court ruled that imprisoning foreign suspects without trial broke human rights law. With the Liberal Democrats also against, and many in the Labour party uneasy, the legislative battle could be bloody. "Internment without trial creates martyrs. It can be a very effective recruiting sergeant," Conservative leader Michael Howard told a news conference on Wednesday. "The government believes in house arrest. I do not. If people are dangerous terrorists they should be in prison not at home. But their innocence or guilt must be determined by a court of law, not by the Home Secretary."Prime Minister Tony Blair's huge majority should ensure he wins the day in the elected House of Commons but a tight vote will give Lords in the upper chamber a green light to mount their own challenge -- altering, delaying or even sinking the legislation. Home Secretary Charles Clarke bowed last week to the Law Lords' December ruling, replacing jail with sweeping powers to impose house arrest on terrorism suspects regardless of nationality. Civil liberties campaigners said the new measures could prove even more draconian than the old ones. "We are going to oppose those and try and defeat those in the Commons and Lords," Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten told BBC Radio. "You cannot have a situation where the Home Secretary is able to impose house detention now on UK nationals as well as foreign nationals." Clarke said 11 foreign terrorism suspects held under the old powers, some for as long as three years, would remain jailed until the new measures were in place. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-02-03 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=55489 |