LONDON, Feb 7 (AFP) - Foreign terror
suspects being detained in Britain are challenging the country's
anti-terrorist legislation, under which they could be held
indefinitely, at the European Court of human rights, The
Guardian reported Monday.
Gareth Pierce, a lawyer for detainees at
London's high security Belmarsh prison. and the Liberty lobby
group have called for the case to be prioritised by the judges
in Strasbourg, the paper said.
If ithis is the case, then a ruling could be
expected within months which could run counter to Britain's
plans to modify, but not scrap, its indefinite detention policy.
Britain's Home Minister Charles Clarke is
preparing new procedures under which terror suspects, whether
British or foreign, could be held under house arrest, tagged
with electronic bracelets, subjected to phone taps and banned
from using the internet.
"There are very strong prospects that the
European court of human rights will conclude that there is no
public emergency threatening the life of this nation and
therefore no derogation (opt out) from the (European) convention
(on human rights) is possible," Liberty lawyer David Pannick
told the paper.
In December, the Law Lords, the highest court in
the land, ruled that indefinite detention without trial of
foreign terrorism suspects violated Britain's obligations under
the European human rights convention.
