CAMPACC

European torture watchdog in secret visit to UK

Detention without charge or trial under new anti-terrorism powers prompts alarm

Investigators from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) flew out of the UK on Thursday (21st February) - at the end of a five- day secret visit to investigate the treatment of those interned under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001.

Liberty lawyers were amongst those helping the Committee with its enquiries and raised a number of serious concerns:

The internees have been denied access to family and lawyers for long periods since their detention in December. The prison authorities have continued to frustrate these visits.
Some of the internees only got the services of a lawyer by good fortune - In contrast to the ordinary criminal justice system, where everyone taken into police custody has the right to a lawyer and can be put in touch with one, here there is no system in place to put detainees (most of whom speak little or no English) in touch with a lawyer at all.
All are being held in poor conditions and under a harsh regime normally reserved for category A prisoners in a high-security jail - despite the fact that they face indefinite detention on the basis of suspicion rather than charge or conviction.
The process for challenging this internment is not fair, adequate or sufficiently swift.

Eight people were interned under these powers in December; seven remained in custody by the end of January. It's not clear whether any more people have been detained during February under the 2001 Act. After two months in prison, none of the seven have yet had a substantive hearing on the justification for their detention before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.

John Wadham, director of Liberty, says: "The Committee's visit shows just how far Britain has stepped beyond the normal bounds of justice with this extension of anti-terrorism powers. It shows how out of step this country with the rest of Europe in terms of protecting people's rights while still tackling terrorism".

BACKGROUND NOTE
The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture was set up under the 1987 Convention for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Its members include lawyers, doctors, police and prison experts, and parliamentarians. It is entitled to visit any place where people are detained by a public authority and to interview the people detained in private.

This was an emergency visit prompted by the extreme powers of detention introduced in the Anti-terrorism, Crime & Security Act in December 2001. Countries attracting the Committee's urgent or ¬ad hoc' attention in the second half of 2001 included the Russian Federation (over Chechnya), the Republic of Moldova, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Albania.

Normally the Committee carries out regular scheduled visits to Council member states (including to the UK last year). Findings are then published once the Government in question has received the report and agreed to publication. The UK Government has not yet agreed to publication of the report from last year's regular CPT visit to the UK, but we hope this will happen soon.