Reid warning to judges over control orders


· Home secretary ready to invoke state of emergency
· Move to stiffen law would suspend human rights act

Alan Travis and Vikram Dodd
Friday May 25, 2007
The Guardian

The home secretary, John Reid, made clear yesterday he is prepared to declare a "state of emergency" to suspend key parts of the human rights convention if the law lords do not overturn a series of judgments that have weakened the anti-terrorist control order regime.

His warning to the courts followed his acute embarrassment yesterday when he had to confirm to MPs that three terror suspects whom he had placed under control orders to prevent them travelling to Iraq to kill British and US troops had all absconded on Monday night.

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The search continued yesterday for the three men, two of whom are the brothers of a convicted terrorist, as the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, said there was no guarantee they did not pose a danger to the UK.

Scotland Yard named Lamine Adam, 26, his brother Ibrahim, 20, and Cerie Bullivant, 24, after they failed to report to police. One counter-terrorism source said: "It was a deliberate attempt to disappear, you have to ask why. They disappeared in a coordinated way."

Police last night issued new pictures of Mr Bullivant, including a CCTV image of him entering Dagenham police station on Monday morning to meet the conditions of his control order. It shows he had cut his hair.

MPs fear the control order regime is in danger of becoming a public laughing stock since six of the current 17 terror suspects subject to orders have managed to disappear.

A decision to "opt out" of a key part of the European human rights convention - which can only be justified by war or a public emergency threatening the life of the nation - will represent a new round in the continuing struggle between ministers and the courts over civil liberties and the fight against terrorism. The Liberal Democrats claimed last night it would turn Britain into "a renegade state".

The control order regime, introduced under the 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act after the judges ruled indefinite detention without trial in Belmarsh prison unlawful, allows the home secretary to impose restrictions on the liberty of individual terror suspects. The measures, which apply to British as well as foreign suspects, include tagging and round-the-clock electronic surveillance, up to virtual house arrest without the need to go to court first.

"There is a very serious threat - and I am the first to admit that the means we have of fighting it are so inadequate that we are fighting with one arm tied behind our backs. So I hope when we bring forward proposals in the next few weeks that we will have a little less party politics and a little more support for national security," said Mr Reid.

The home secretary said the three men were not considered "at this time" to represent a direct threat to the UK public.

Sir Ian said: "Nobody can be perfectly satisfied that they are not a risk to the public here, but the intelligence is pointing in another direction."

None of the three men have been charged or prosecuted for terrorist offences. The Adam brothers were named during the "fertiliser bomb" trial, at the end of which their brother Anthony Garcia, 25, was jailed for life last month. Lamine had been banned from working on London's underground system as part of his control order.

The law lords are due to hear a series of appeals from the home secretary after he suffered repeated defeats at the hands of high court and appeal court judges who ruled that the restrictions without trial he had imposed on suspects amounted to an illegal deprivation of their liberty. In one case the judges reduced a "virtual house arrest" curfew of 18 hours to 14 hours.

Mr Reid also said he would publish proposals for a new counter-terrorism bill within the next few weeks to strengthen Britain's anti-terror laws. The legislation, expected later this summer, will include new powers for the police and security services including the questioning of terror suspects after they have been charged for the first time and a new "middle way" on extending their detention without charge beyond the current 28 days.

But the consultation paper to be published before Mr Reid and Tony Blair leave office at the end of June will not include proposals to restore public credibility in the "control order regime" nor proposals to allow intercept phonetap evidence to be used in terrorist court cases.

Instead Mr Reid said he was prepared for the first time to take the "nuclear option" of opting out or derogating from article five of the European convention on human rights which guarantees the right to liberty.

The high court, the court of appeal and parliament's joint human rights committee have all said that a significant number of the 17 control orders in force are being routinely exercised in breach of the right to liberty under article five.