Government accused over terror orders

Plans to relax restrictions imposed on suspected terrorists and rebrand controversial powers used to keep tabs on them are little more than "control orders lite", critics said yesterday.
By The Newsroom
Published 26th Jan 2011, 16:29 BST
Updated 26th Jan 2011, 23:23 BST

Liberty, the civil liberties campaign group, accused the government of "bottling" the decision on the future of counter-terrorism powers, saying that, "spin and semantics aside, control orders are retained and rebranded, if in a slightly lower-fat form".

The new powers announced by Home Secretary Theresa May will no longer need to be reviewed every year, a clear signal that the restrictions against suspected terrorists against whom prosecutions cannot be brought are here to stay.

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The term "control order" has been scrapped and will be replaced with "Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures", or Tpims, Mrs May said.

But Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "When it comes to ending punishment without trial, the government appears to have bottled it.

"As before, the innocent may be punished without a fair hearing and the guilty will escape the full force of criminal law. This leaves a familiar bitter taste.

"Parliament must now decide whether the final flavour will be of progress, disappointment or downright betrayal."

Related topics:GovernmentTheresa MayParliament