Surprise release for terror suspect - Guardian

[DoYouEverWonder]

Clarke revokes detention order on Egyptian held for three years

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Wednesday February 2, 2005
The Guardian

An Egyptian terror suspect, known only as internee C, who was detained indefinitely for three years under the emergency anti-terror law, has been freed "out of the blue", the home secretary confirmed yesterday.

He was released without conditions from Woodhill prison, near Milton Keynes, on Monday evening on the orders of Charles Clarke. In a brief phone conversation with his solicitor he said: "I am being released. It is a surprise. They just came to get me now. I am a free man." He told his solicitor he was confused and did not understand why he was held in the first place. "I have had to spend three years of my life locked up when I have done nothing wrong," he said.

Mr Clarke told MPs yesterday that he had taken the decision to revoke C's certificate as a suspected international terrorist because the "weight of evidence at the current time" did not justify his continued detention. The decision comes as Mr Clarke is facing a backlash over his plans to replace these emergency executive detention powers with alternative control orders using surveillance and house arrest.

C was detained under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 three years ago on the grounds that he was a leading member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Britain, a banned organisation which merged with al-Qaida in 2003. He had been sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by an Egyptian military court in absentia and Home Office lawyers claimed that he had been in contact with leading Islamist extremists in Britain and had been engaged in fraudulent fundraising.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1403671,00.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. 9 more are expected to be released in a few days

Release of terror suspect increases pressure on Clarke
By Robert Verkaik and Nigel Morris

02 February 2005

The policy of locking up foreign terror suspects without charge or trial appeared to be unravelling yesterday after a man accused of being a threat to national security was suddenly freed after three years' imprisonment.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said evidence against Egyptian-born "C" no longer justified his indefinite detention in Woodhill high-security prison, Buckinghamshire, but declined to give any further reason for his release.

"C" was one of the first foreign suspects to be detained under emergency terror legislation hastily drawn up by ministers after the 11 September attacks. His release came less than 24 hours after another detainee, Abu Rideh, was granted bail by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) because his indefinite detention had worsened his psychiatric problems.

The remaining nine suspects held at Belmarsh and Broadmoor secure hospital are expected to be released on bail or unconditionally freed in the next few days. A tenth man, "G", was granted bail last year under conditions of house arrest.


http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=606855