{"id":4684,"date":"2008-10-01T16:17:07","date_gmt":"2008-10-01T15:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=4684"},"modified":"2008-10-01T16:17:07","modified_gmt":"2008-10-01T15:17:07","slug":"human-rights-concern-over-42-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/surveillance-big-brother\/human-rights-concern-over-42-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Human rights concern over 42 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government plans to enable police to hold terror suspects without charge for 42 days have caused “considerable concern” at Europe’s human rights body.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee said suspects should be taken to prison after 14 days as police cells were inadequate for longer detention.<\/p>\n

The controversial law was passed by MPs in June and will be voted on in the Lords in a fortnight.<\/p>\n

The government said it was “acutely aware” of its responsibilities. <\/p>\n

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) visited the high-security Paddington Green police station in west London in December.<\/p>\n

It wanted to inspect “the safeguards afforded to persons detained by the police under the Terrorism Act 2000 as well as the conditions of detention of such persons”.<\/p>\n

Under the Act, terror suspects can be detained up to 28 days – which the government wants to extend to 42 days in “special circumstances”.<\/p>\n

But the committee said in a report released on Wednesday: “The existing – and possible new – provisions regarding the permissible length of pre-charge detention in cases falling under the terrorism legislation are a matter of considerable concern to the CPT.<\/p>\n

“The committee has no intention of entering into the current debate on the arguments for and against the length of pre-charge detention of terrorist suspects in the UK.<\/p>\n

“However, as the CPT has emphasised in the past, in the interests of the prevention of ill-treatment, the sooner a criminal suspect passes into the hands of a custodial authority which is functionally and institutionally separate from the police, the better.”<\/p>\n

Under the UK’s code of practice, suspects must be transferred from police station to prison after 14 days unless a detainee specifically asks to remain in the police station, or when transfer to prison would hinder effective investigation of the case.<\/p>\n

The CPT report warned: “The information gathered at Paddington Green high security police station indicates that the exceptions have become very much the rule.”<\/p>\n

It said that allowing requests was a “fundamentally-flawed approach from the standpoint of the prevention of ill-treatment”.<\/p>\n

It also doubted whether an investigation would be hindered if a suspect was transferred, as police can still question the detainee, even in prison.<\/p>\n

Safeguards<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Transfer to a prison should in all cases be obligatory if detention of a terrorist suspect beyond 14 days is authorised (and, preferably, such a transfer should occur at a much earlier stage),” the report said.<\/p>\n

The committee criticised the state of Paddington Green, especially as authorities had failed to act on its 2005 report, which said the station was not suitable for prolonged detention.<\/p>\n

But a Home Office spokesman said: “Very few terrorism suspects have been held in police custody for more than a few days and all have been with judicial authority.<\/p>\n

“Of 11 individuals held in custody for 14 days or more, nine were transferred to the prison authorities at 14 days.”<\/p>\n

The spokesman added that the government takes the welfare of detainees seriously and that safeguards are in place for suspects detained for longer periods.<\/p>\n

BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Government plans to enable police to hold terror suspects without charge for 42 days have caused “considerable concern” at Europe’s human rights body. The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee said suspects should be taken to prison after 14 days as police cells were inadequate for longer detention. The controversial law was passed by MPs in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1614,1615],"tags":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-4684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-surveillance-big-brother","7":"category-uk-news","8":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}