UK terror suspects lose appeal

[emad]

From BBC News:

Appeals by five suspected international terrorists detained without trial have been rejected.The Special Immigration Appeals Commission judges made the ruling in favour of the government on Wednesday. They have been detained without trial under emergency powers introduced in the wake of 11 September.

Another five suspects are due to hear the outcome of their appeals later on Wednesday. Some of the men have been in jail since December 2001, held under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) backed the Home Office claims it had enough evidence to keep the men behind bars.

The men include Jamal Ajouaou and Palestinian asylum seeker Mahmoud Abu Rideh, but the remaining eight have not been named. Lawyers representing the men claimed the evidence against them was "fragmentary and incomplete".

Outside the court in central London, a group of about 25 protesters demonstrated before the verdicts were announced. Estella Schmid, of the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities, said: "We are against internment without trial and we think there has to be an open trial regardless of whether they have committed these crimes or not. We are not supporting terrorists but we do think every human being has to have a fair trial. This is a principle of a civil society." But the Home Office has maintained the men's detention was based on "detailed evidence" and the powers had been used sparingly.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3223595.stm

Detention without trial smacks of Northern Ireland internment tactics and is the slippery slope of justifying human rights act violations.

The Downing Street Bush Administration will be lucky if such tactics are not used against them in the future when they have to justify their own perfidity.