Blair facing backlash over Britain's 'Guantanamo Bay'

[JoFerret]

By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
21 February 2004


Tony Blair was under pressure last night over controversial laws allowing the detention without trial of 14 foreign terrorist suspects who have been held for up to two years in "Britain's Guantanamo Bay".

Human rights groups and MPs condemned sweeping powers in the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act as an affront to the rule of law. Under the emergency legislation, passed after the 11 September attacks on the United States, foreign nationals suspected of terrorist activity can be held indefinitely as an alternative to deportation if they face torture or death in their own countries.

Fourteen suspects are being held at a total cost of up to £750,000 under the anti-terrorism legislation. Seven of the detainees are thought to be held at Belmarsh top-security jail in south-east London, where it costs £36,000 a year to hold each prisoner, and fiveat Woodhill prison in Milton Keynes, where holding each prisoner costs £31,000 a year.

The human rights group Liberty yesterday led calls for the Act's repeal....<more>
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=493598

[pw]

1. Weird

The part about "if they face torture or death in their own country" makes it sounds like the indefinite detention is for their own good. (Of course, under international law, you're not supposed to repatriate someone who faces torture or extrajudicial killing, but what the hey)