How the British treat bombing suspects

[moodforaday]

Halal food, a prayer mat and the prospect of a slow build-up of pressure to talk - this is the fate of suspected failed bomber Yasin Hassan Omar.

The 24-year-old was overpowered by a police stun gun during a dawn raid in Birmingham six days after he was suspected of trying to bomb a Victoria Line tube near Warren Street.

Transported to London's high-security Paddington Green police station hours after his arrest, Omar would have been greeted by the custody sergeant and told his rights, before being given food as well as a chance to rest, according to solicitor Greg Powell, who has been inside the station.

He would have access to a Koran and a prayer mat.

Building rapport

"It's a very ordinary station, like any other," said Mr Powell.

"It's well organised in terms of Muslim detainees."

Charles Shoebridge, a security analyst and former counter-terrorism intelligence officer, said Omar would not be treated any differently from other prisoners.

"Even though this suspect has been arrested under anti-terror legislation, he's dealt with - once in custody - in pretty much the same way as any other person arrested for a serious crime.

"His DNA, his fingerprints will be taken, his clothing will be taken from him and replaced.

"And by now he will have been availed of the rights given him by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act," he told BBC's Newsnight.

Those rights include insuring he is fed properly, that he has been given sufficient rest, and access to a lawyer.

"The reason officers are doing that is not that they are being particularly compassionate - although it would help with any rapport-building exercise - but mainly because nobody wants any possible future court case to be compromised by any sense of ill treatment," Mr Shoebridge said.

(snip)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4724521.stm