British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday defended his government’s efforts to tackle terrorism in Britain against criticism they threaten civil rights.
Blair also said he is prepared to meet with opposition politicians to discuss new anti-terrorist proposals, including electronic tagging, curfews and house arrest of people who have not been convicted of crimes.
The proposals were drawn up after Britain’s highest court condemned controversial legislation used to hold foreign terror suspects indefinitely without charge or trial. Nine law lords in the House of Lords said the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, rushed through after the September 11 attacks, is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Blair said criticism of the law needs to be put into perspective.
”The legislation we introduced that was ruled unlawful by the House of Lords is legislation under which 17 people have been detained,” the prime minister said.
”Now I don’t minimise the importance of that, but set it against roundabout 700 people arrested on various offences connected with the possibility of terrorism since September 11,” he told lawmakers in the House of Commons.
”What we are desperate to do is to avoid a situation where, at a later point, people turn round and say: ‘If you had only been as vigilant as you should have been, we could have averted a terrorist attack.”’
Ten of the 17 suspects detained under the legislation remain in custody, while one, an Egyptian identified only as C, was freed on Monday after three years in detention without trial. The government didn’t say why it was freeing him.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke proposed new ”control orders” last week that would apply to foreign and British terror suspects to replace the controversial legislation. Measures would include a ban on meeting certain people, restricting access to telecommunications such as the internet, curfews and tagging.
But the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, Michael Howard, said on Wednesday that the government is following a ”dangerous path” by proposing to detain people — at home or in prison — without trial.
”Of course, we must fight terrorism. But we must also be vigilant in defence of our freedom,” Howard said during the weekly session of questions to the prime minister.
Blair agreed to study Conservative proposals for dealing with terror suspects, but warned there are problems with using evidence gathered by the security services in court.
He said security services might feel unable to produce evidence in court without compromising intelligence sources.
Howard countered that there are difficulties with intercept evidence — such as information gathered from phone taps or intercepted e-mails — but they have been overcome in ”almost every other country”.
”There are even greater difficulties with detention without trial,” the Conservative leader added. — Sapa-AP