British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was to put his dented leadership to the test yesterday with plans to toughen terrorism laws amid bitter opposition from civil liberties groups, lawmakers and even law enforcement officials, who claim his proposals are draconian and unnecessary.
Brown is seeking to greatly increase the number of days Britain’s police can detain suspected terrorists before charges must be made against them — a difficult task that led to a humiliating parliamentary defeat for his successor Tony Blair.
The British leader aims to pass new laws increasing the custody limit from 28 to 42 days — or six weeks. Police chiefs and some victims of terrorism back the move, but the plans do not appear to have won widespread public support.
PHOTO: AFP
Brown insists it is vital to legislate now for a possible future catastrophe, rather than in the confused aftermath of a major terrorist attack on Britain.
Steering the laws through parliament could help restore Brown’s leadership credentials.
But a knife-edge vote yesterday could equally deliver a humbling defeat to Brown and raise new grumbling over recent policy reversals and failures in municipal elections.
“It will be a very, very tight vote,” Home Office Minister Tony McNulty told British Broadcasting Corp radio on Tuesday.
Fierce debate has stirred over the issue; some campaigners accuse Brown of undermining rights to liberty won centuries ago.
“Voting in favor of this bill would prove that through terrorism you can actually force your enemies to abandon the values which underpin democracy,” said Tom Porteous, a director of the civil liberties group Human Rights Watch.
Even Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5, has made a rare foray into the public realm over the issue.
MI5 Director-General Jonathan Evans posted a message on the agency’s Web site on Monday to dismiss claims from both sides that the organization supports their arguments. He insisted that MI5, which is strictly politically neutral, has no view on the issue.
But he acknowledged terror plots being hatched against Britain are increasingly complex.
Brown said that means his plans are crucial — to give police more time to crack encrypted computers, chase leads across the globe and map out terrorist networks.
“It is important to understand that the terrorist threat today is radically different from that faced in the past,” he wrote to Labour Party lawmakers, seeking to win over an estimated 50 rebels in his ranks.
Brown compared an Irish Republican terrorism case in 2001 — when police seized one computer — to a 2004 plot hatched by Islamic extremists to bomb US financial targets and luxury London hotels.
In the more recent case, officers seized 270 computers and made inquiries in seven countries.
But few understand how Brown has arrived at a 42-day limit.
Blair attempted to win police a 90-day limit in 2005, but was defeated and forced to accept the current 28-day regime.
“There’s never been a reason given for arriving precisely at the number 42,” said Jago Russell, a policy officer for the human rights group Liberty, who testified before a committee on the plans.
Since new laws were passed in 2005, police have held six suspects up to the maximum limit of 28 days; three people were released without charge and a further three prosecuted.
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