Six potentially dangerous terror suspects, including a would-be
suicide bomber in the airline liquid-bomb plot, will be "free and
unconstrained" from January, when special surveillance orders against
them expire, the government's official terror laws watchdog has warned.
David
Anderson QC said ministers needed to investigate alternative strategies
to deal with the six terror suspects whose terrorist prevention and
investigation measures (Tpims) expire in January. The measures replaced
controversial control orders.
"Control orders could be extended
year-on-year without limit," said Anderson. "The Tpims imposed at the
start of 2012, by contrast, are likely finally to expire, after the
single permitted extension, early in 2014."
He said some of the
terror suspects who had been judged to be "potentially dangerous" by the
home secretary and the courts would then, in the absence of a
prosecution or new evidence of terrorism-related activity, be "free and
unconstrained".
The Home Office said there were eight Tpim notices
in force. They can be imposed on those the home secretary believes to
have engaged in terrorism-related activity but whom it is not feasible
either to prosecute or deport. They are believed to have participated in
al-Qaida-related terrorist activity and nearly all are thought to be
British citizens.
The Tpims conditions can involve an overnight
curfew enforced by an electronic tag that tracks movements, restrictions
on travel, movement, association, communication, finances, work and
study, and a duty to report daily to the authorities.
The system
replaced the more draconian control order regime, which included
house-arrest-style curfews of up to 16 hours, as part of a coalition
civil liberties pledge. But the two-year time limit was imposed to
encourage authorities to investigate all the possibilities to prosecute
or deport the terror suspects involved.
Anderson says in his first
annual report reviewing the operation of the regime that the two-year
limit was the "boldest change" made by the government compared with
control orders.
The terror watchdog says the six Tpim notices due
to expire in January include three individuals against whom the
allegations could be described as "at the highest end of seriousness,
even by the standards of international terrorism".
Two other Tpim
notices were allowed to expire in January. They include Ibrahim Magag,
who absconded on Boxing Day after simply calling a taxi. The second
involves a man who can only legally be identified as AY, who was
acquitted in the airline bomb-plot trial, but is believed to have been
its key co-ordinator. He is back in custody.
The six who could be
freed include a man, AM, aged 24, who is said to have been a would-be
suicide bomber in the airline liquid-bomb plot of 2006 but was never
arrested or put on trial.
Another one is CD, 28, who attended a
terrorist training camp in Cumbria in 2005, where his companions
included four of the five attempted suicide bombers in the failed
attacks on London on 21 July 2005. He has also been involved in training
in Syria.
The third is CF, who despite an acquittal at a criminal
trial is believed by the home secretary to have had "undoubtedly real
and substantial" involvement in a UK network recruiting fighters in
Britain overseas. He absconded while on bail during his criminal trial
and undertook terrorist training in Somalia before fighting alongside
al-Shabaab.
The official review of the counter-terrorism laws says
the public allegations against the other three, though still serious,
are not of the same order.
BF, 30, a former train driver, is
alleged to have undergone terrorist training but has not taken part in
funding, recruitment or attack planning. BM, 39, who is married with
five children, was involved in terrorist-related activity in Pakistan
and in Britain before 2007, and is likely to resume if not subject to a
Tpim, the review warns.
The sixth terror suspect who could be
freed is CE, 28, a British citizen of Iranian origin who has been
trained in Somalia and was part of a British network providing extensive
funds to Somalia for terrorist purposes.
Anderson says even if
control orders had continued, it is not realistic to suppose these men
could have been kept under restraint indefinitely without proof of their
guilt. He also says it is no surprise they have proved ineffective as
an investigation measure, given the awareness of the suspects that they
were under scrutiny and that if they avoided any terrorism-related
activity for two years they were likely to be free of all constraints.
A
Home Office spokeswoman said substantial extra resources were provided
to the police and security services to increase opportunities to
prosecute for terrorist-related activity as part of the transition to
Tpims. "If the individual engages in further terrorism-related activity
after the imposition of the TPIM notice, it will be possible to impose a
new TPIM notice (for a further two years) to continue to protect the
public."