World | UK

28-day detention is long enough, says senior official

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's anti-terror legislation suffered an early blow yesterday after the head of the prosecution service said there was no case for detaining terrorist suspects without charge for 42 days.

  • Evening Standard
  • Published: 00:01 April 2, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Gordon Brown. The head of the prosecution service said there was no case for detaining terrorist suspects without charge for 42 days.
  • Image Credit: Reuters

London: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's anti-terror legislation suffered an early blow yesterday after the head of the prosecution service said there was no case for detaining terrorist suspects without charge for 42 days.

Sir Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the Crown Prosecution Service was satisfied with the present 28-day limit and saw no need to extend it.

His intervention will be seized on by opposition MPs and Labour rebels as the Commons holds its first debate this afternoon on the new Counter-Terrorism Bill.

The government is braced for a bruising two-month battle over the legislation with about 40 Labour MPs saying they will vote against any increase in the time terrorist suspects can be held without charge.

"In our experience the 28-day limit works well," Sir Ken told The Times. He pointed out that the CPS counter-terrorism unit enjoyed a 92 per cent success rate for prosecutions compared with a 77 per cent average for other trials.

No difficulties

"We have had major, major cases that have occurred within that time limit and haven't encountered any difficulties in charging those we have wanted to charge and that's why we have not requested any extension," he said.

Sir Ken said the CPS had unrivalled expertise in prosecuting counter-terrorist cases. "In the past 18 months we've been building very strong cases, with very good counter-terrorism prosecutors working very well with the police. In many cases defendants don't have anywhere to hide - the case against them has been so strong and so compelling," he said.

He added: "We prosecute more [terrorist] trials than any other fair-trial jurisdiction in the world - more than America, Australia, Canada or other European countries - and that's why our people have become so expert at it."

But Sir Ken said he was a long-standing supporter of government plans to allow the police to question suspects after they have been charged with an offence.

  • Rate this article
  • Average reader rating (0 votes) 0 Stars
Tools

Emailing an article to friend is a simple way to share a news item. Your friend will receive an email with your name and email address as well any personal message you choose to send.

The information you provide on this page will not be used to send unsolicited emails.

This service is not intended to encourage spam, and action may be taken against individuals who maliciously enter personal details of another individual.

Share this article

UK

  1. Thatcher 'stayed up' for entire Falklands War

  2. Twelve UK state hospital trusts shown to be failing on safety

  3. MPs out to scuttle Commons disclosure

  4. Secret letter exposes how Blair lied

  5. Unlikely hero is first woman to get medal

  6. Campaign against giving babies solid food blasted

  7. Delivery of Christmas cards may be affected

  8. Get to know your Sunday roast

All articles in United Kingdom

More from World

Gulf News
Popular in World

More from world

News Editor's choice