London Green MEP reacts to House of Commons vote on Counter Terrorism Bill
10 June 2008
Jean Lambert, who was re-elected to Liberty's Council at their AGM at theweekend, condemned the House of Commons decision today to extend the maximumtime police can hold terror suspects to 42 days.
Jean Lambert, the Green Party MEP for London, said:
"It is appalling that our elected Members of Parliament have voted throughthis plan to extend the detention without charge time to 42 days. Even ourcurrent legislation allows suspects to be detained for up to 28 days - thelongest time in Europe.
"However, by focussing only on the 42 days we are in danger of overlookingother measures in the bill which are equally problematic, especially giventhe excessively broad definition of terrorism contained in the 2000Terrorism Act.
""Anti-terror" powers are increasingly being used to incriminate innocentpeople and this bill will further exacerbate this. The Bill also proposesforms of punishment that may be imposed after conviction, without furtherdue legal process and even on the basis of secret evidence withheld fromdefendants. In addition, the measures to allow no-jury inquests in the nameof "national security" would seriously undermine police accountability.
"Counter-terror powers are already more than sufficient and thecounter-terrorism bill as it stands does more to endanger than to enhancepublic safety."
37 Labour MPs joined forces with the Conservatives and Lib Dems to voteagainst the proposals, but they were still carried through by 315 to 306votes.
