UK: Most dangerous terror suspects free to walk streets within a year

Photo: INS

Ibrahim Magag

Britain’s most dangerous terror suspects will be “free and unconstrained” on the streets within a year because of the watered down replacement to control orders, a watchdog has warned.

Up to ten suspects, some at the “highest end of seriousness”, will be completely free to see and do what they wish by early next year after set time limits of restrictive court orders expire.

It will be a new headache for Theresa May, the Home Secretary, just a year ahead of the next general election in 2015.

One is suspected of being a key co-ordinator for the 2006 airlines bomb plot while another is believed to have been a would-be suicide bomber.

But they will no longer be controlled by court orders that restrict their movements and who they can see, a report by David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terror legislation, warned.

The Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIMs) replaced the control order system in 2012 to restrain the activities of terror suspects who could not be charged with criminal offences.

However, the new regime is less restrictive including shorter curfews and a two year limit on being in place – and costs more money to operate.

The only way an order can be extended is if new evidence is found on the suspects, meaning the majority will be freed from their constraints early next year, leaving the police and security services with an even greater surveillance demand.

 

The Telegraph has the full article

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