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| Europe |
| 2004-10-03 |
| LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of human rights campaigners have held a vigil outside a prison to protest against Britain's detention without trial of 11 foreign terror suspects. Sunday's vigil outside London's Belmarsh high security jail, where some of the suspects are detained, drew attention to controversial powers allowing Britain to indefinitely detain foreign nationals suspected of links with international terrorism. The protest took place ahead of further legal attempts to challenge the special post-September 11 anti-terrorism laws under which the suspects are being held. Critics have described the laws as discriminatory and Britain had to opt out of parts of the European Convention on Human Rights to imprison suspects without trial. "[D]iscriminatory?" What is discriminating about interfering with plans being made by aspiring mass murdering psychotics to kill Brits wholesale? Fricking wingnuts! The nationalities of the 11 are unclear. So, once again, how are these "There can never be any justification for indefinite detention without trial," said a spokesman for rights group Liberty, whose director Shami Chakrabarti attended the vigil. I don't recall any proclaimed intentions of holding these thugs indefinitely. "If there is a case against these men, it should be brought to court in the traditional British manner for a jury to decide and the men should be allowed to be legally represented to put their case."Jean Lambert, a member of the European Parliament for the Green Party, said the detainees had no idea what their future would be. Guess again, nutjob. Some terrorist prosecutions involve extremely sensitive state secrets. The very nature of fighting those who would destroy a nation's government involve methods and tactics that should not be made public. "You either charge these people or you release them, but what you don't do is carry on holding them in limbo without any clear legal status whatsoever," she told Reuters, adding a "good couple of hundred" protesters had gathered outside Belmarsh. Engaging in terrorist activity is pretty much an automatic forfeit of due process. Under the special powers, the government does not have to prove the detainees committed a crime, only that authorities have "reasonable grounds" to suspect they might pose a threat. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #1 I read this on the BBC early this am. All I can say is these folks are wack jobs with to much time on their hands. Seriously how do they have the time to worry about this? Oh yes because the live fat, protected, happy lives which contridict the very premise of what they are protesting. If these were unreasonable detentions they themselves would have been haulled off. Stupid terror supporting twits and neo-communists(greens). |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-03 3:56:42 PM |