CUSTODY: call for shift to 'normal judicial process'


The government should consider charging terror suspects with minor offences and deny bail where appropriate rather than extend the pre-charge detention limit to 42 days, Lord Dear, a former inspector of the constabulary, has told the Gazette.



Currently, terror suspects can be held in custody without charge for 28 days. MPs will vote on government proposals to extend the time limit, subject to some parliamentary oversight, next month.



Speaking after the annual joint University College London and Bindmans debate in London last week, Dear, a crossbench peer and former chief constable of the West Midlands force, said the move would take terror suspects into the 'normal judicial process'.



He said: 'At 28 days there has to be some evidence of some minor terrorist offence...having charged that minor offence, immediately the 28-days clock stops and you are in the normal process and have to produce evidence.'



Dear suggested allowing the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether or not to grant bail could allow for a proper examination of evidence without revealing surveillance techniques or identifying security agents.



He said the move recognised that the 'terrorist landscape had completely changed with suicide bombers' and that security forces had to intervene earlier when 'the evidential chain is often less well-developed than it might be otherwise'.



However, the government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC, said suspects had the right to be charged with realistic offences.



He added: 'Lord Dear's proposal is predicated upon charging someone with lower-level charges and using that to keep someone in custody. That does not seem any more human rights-compatible than what the government is currently proposing [42 days]."



Anita Rice