Britain was due on Wednesday to unveil a list of ”unacceptable behaviour” aimed at forcing the deportation of Islamic radicals in the wake of last month’s deadly London bombings.
The measures come as a newspaper reported the bombs used in the July 7 attacks that killed 56 people on London transport were manually activated by button-like devices.
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke was due to set out the bad behaviour list at 10am GMT amid concerns by the United Nations that Britain may deport people to countries where they face the risk of death or torture.
The list — compiled following talks with Muslim groups — will apply to non-British citizens, either in the country or abroad.
Clarke outlined his initial proposals on August 5, saying banned acts included those which:
- foment terrorism or seek to provoke others to terrorist acts;
- justify or glorify terrorism;
- advocate violence in support of particular beliefs; or
- anything else the government considers to be ”extreme views that are in conflict with the United Kingdom’s culture of tolerance”.
He said such views could be aired by writing, producing or distributing material, public speaking or over an internet site.
Clarke defended the government’s action when he set out the draft.
”In the circumstances that we now face, while treading carefully in areas that relate to free speech, it is right to broaden the use of exclusion and deportation powers to deal with those who foment terrorism, or seek to provoke others to commit terrorist acts,” he said.
”I believe that these powers need to be applied more widely and systematically both to people before they come to the UK and when they are here.”
The final list will be published on the back of criticism by the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak. He said Britain’s plan to deport firebrand Islamists to countries with poor human rights records will expose them to ”a real risk” of facing the death penalty.
The British government is compiling bilateral agreements with mainly Arab countries — Jordan was the first to sign — to deport undesirables from one country to the other without fear of torture.
Clarke has insisted the accords will guarantee deportees’ rights.
Nowak, however, argued: ”The fact that such assurances are sought shows in itself that the sending country perceives a serious risk of the deportee being subjected to torture or ill treatment upon arrival in the receiving country.
”Diplomatic assurances are not an appropriate tool to eradicate this risk.”
While the government concentrated on a crackdown on Islamic extremism, the police continued to hunt for clues about the July 7 carnage on three subway trains and a double-decker bus that left 56 people dead.
Quoting senior police sources, The Guardian newspaper reported the bombs were triggered by ”manually activated” button-like devices.
It said the breakthrough in London’s biggest terrorist investigation scotches the theory that the four apparent suicide bombers had been duped into carrying rucksacks full of explosives on to public transport.
In separate development, a fact-finding mission by a delegation from Brazil into the police shooting of a Brazilian man wrongly suspected of being a suicide bomber moved to the offices of an independent inquiry into the death.
Three Brazilian officials were due to meet Nick Hardwick, the head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, to find out more about the investigation into Jean Charles de Menezes’s death on July 22.
The Brazilian team will also visit the Crown Prosecution Service and are seeking a meeting with the De Menezes family’s lawyer, Gareth Pierce.
The 27-year-old electrician was shot dead by anti-terrorist officers as he boarded a subway train in south London on July 22, when tensions in the capital were running high in the wake of the deadly bombings in the city. — Sapa-AFP