Control Orders in tatters

Good interview on the BBC website with Cerie Bullivant, who was one of those that absconded a control order last year amidst quite a bit of publicity.

In December he was cleared of breaching the control order and in February, the control order was quashed by the presiding judge.

The judgements surely leave the government's strategy in tatters. Control orders effectively place someone under house arrest when there is not enough evidence to arrest and prosecute them. Given how widely anti-terror powers are defined, this must mean there is very little on them indeed. When the powers were introduced, we were told that this may because evidence was gained from bugging, which was inadmissible in court, or intelligence sources would be compromised.

In Bullivant's case, he was at his home one day when police officers delivered the control order from the Home Secretary. It appears that not only was there no admissible evidence for not going through the normal anti-terror prosecution route with him, but there was no evidence at all. There may be a cloud over his friends, but this is no reason for imposing draconian punishments on him.

He then decided to go on the run before turning himself in after a month. Remarkably, he was cleared of breaching the control order because of the stress that the ordeal involved. Subsequently, all restrictions have been removed from him, despite the government trying to add more. However, as Bullivant said afterwards:

"Although I am very happy that this order has now been lifted, this draconian legislation is still continuing to ruin the lives of others and their families."

Comments

[joe90]

As the British Government goes from supporting -
- torture and illegal prisons
- illegal kidnappings
- the scraping of habeas corpus
To taking part in -
- illegal wars
- expanding Britian's far-right secretive services
- expanding domestic security budgets
- expanding defence budgets
- more CCTV

In fact, the very opposite of everything western liberals promised would be the result of a 'peace dividend' back in the early 1990s when the old Soviet Union decided it wasn't going to exist anymore.

Now that there is no opposition anymore in the anti-democratic farce that is the empty ritual of the British Parliament in London - Anti-Terrorism legislation is to be debated next Tues 01 April.

The anti-democratic British Police State is to decide how much liberty individuals should be allowed.

Here is Socialist Unity with a few thoughts -
Counter-terrorism bill: secrets and state lies
Socialist Unity
21 Mar 2008

The debate should be live on digital BBC TV Freeview Channel 81.

Also try -
They Work For You
- for a record of the debate.

ps
try my new 'homepage'