Summary
THE GROWING political furore over new terror laws highlights the difficult legal issues that underlie any attempt to tighten up existing legislation. The Home Office has said that it is considering pre-trial hearings in judge-only courts for terror suspects to determine whether there is a viable case against them - an indication of the delicacy involved in handling sensitive evidence from intelligence sources in such cases. The measure may be a precursor to the admission of phone-tap evidence in court.
Such evidence is at present inadmissible but a change in the rules now seems unavoidable. The Prime Minister has also insisted that new legislation will include a new offence of "indirect incitement" to terrorism. Some of the difficulties involved are underlined by our report today on views expressed by London imams. Many will find some of these comments wrongheaded - for example that there is no proof who was responsible for the 7/7 bombings, or for 9/ 11 - or downright offensive. But they are indicative of a growing mood of distrust among British Muslims. They also suggest the range of opinion through which the new laws will have to navigate. Views that might sound extreme elsewhere may be unexceptional within the Muslim community. The Government's task will thus be twofold: to ensure that new anti-terror laws are drafted in a way that will allow real extremists to be targeted, and to minimise the resulting bad feeling among Muslims. The legal drafting will be tricky enough. Already we have seen major criminal cases collapse or result in contentious acquittals because of the difficulty of gathering evidence to prove charges such as conspiracy, as in the ricin poison case earlier this year. Forestalling such problems is part of the logic behind not only the pre-trial hearings but the proposed and more contentious new offence of "acts preparatory to terrorism". Where the line between bluster and posturing crosses into "indirect incitement" will be even harder to frame legally, although in the cases, for instance, of individuals who have run pro-jihad websites over months or years, it may be easier. But whatever the final provisions of the law, they are almost certain to enrage some Muslims.See the full content of this document
Extract
Devil in the Detail of New Terror Laws
However much ministers...
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