BRITAIN: Special anti-terror courts in the UK sitting in secret to determine how long suspects should be detained without charge are now under active consideration, it emerged yesterday.
Home Office sources confirmed that ministers are considering making a French-style "security-cleared judge" responsible for assembling a pretrial case against terrorist suspects, with in-camera access to a full-range of sensitive intelligence evidence, including currently inadmissible phone-tap evidence.
The plan under consideration could also involve the use of security-vetted "special advocates" as legal representatives of those detained. But they would not be able to disclose the nature of the evidence under which their clients were held before being charged.
The proposal puts flesh on the point outlined by Tony Blair last Friday, when he said that part of the new anti-terror package would include "a new court procedure which would allow a pretrial process". He said it would provide a way of meeting requests by the police and security services that detention before charge should be extended from 14 days up to three months.
It was also confirmed yesterday that the prime minister's plan to ban Hizb-ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun - the two Islamist extremist organisations with the highest profile in Britain - is likely to need primary legislation before it can be enforced, as neither group is officially considered a terrorist organisation.
British government sources said that the current Terrorism 2000 Act only allows "terrorist" organisations to banned; for Hizb-ut-Tahrir to be proscribed, legislation to extend the definition to radical extremist groups will be required.
It is not known how "extremist" will be defined, and whether it would include organisations such as the British National Party. The list of "unacceptable behaviours" published by the Home Office includes fomenting terrorism, advocating violence and expressing "extreme views that are in conflict with the UK's culture of tolerance". The decision to adopt secret anti-terrorist courts will mark a departure from England's centuries-old "adversarial" system of justice. In France, where an inquisitorial system is used, an examining magistrate hears evidence from witnesses and suspects, orders searches and authorises warrants, before deciding if there is a valid case.
The approach was recommended by Lord Newton's committee of privy councillors in December 2003 as an alternative to Belmarsh detentions in cases where a conventional trial was not possible. Lord Newton said the approach could deal with the risk that the process of prosecution would lead to the need to disclose sensitive material, and the risk that intelligence-based evidence might be excluded because of the rules of admissibility.
Meanwhile, a massive security operation marked the first court appearance yesterday of four men accused of plotting to murder London bus and tube train passengers in the failed July 21st suicide bomb attacks.
Armed police, search officers and sniffer dogs surrounded the magistrates' court at Belmarsh high-security prison, southeast London, for the appearance of Muktar Said-Ibrahim, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, Ramzi Muhammad and Yasin Hassan Omar, four of five alleged would-be bombers, and three other men accused of helping them evade arrest. No bail applications were made and the four men were remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey for a plea and case management hearing on November 14th.
The British man wanted in the US for allegedly trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon appeared at the magistrates' court at Belmarsh prison yesterday on an extradition warrant. Haroon Rashid Aswat (30) was arrested in Zambia last month and deported to Britain on Sunday. - (Guardian service)