Home Secretary Theresa May hits out at judges over terror suspect punishments

 
11 July 2013
WEST END FINAL

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Theresa May has lashed out at judges who fail to punish terrorism suspects who breach special powers limiting their movement.

The Home Secretary said she felt “frustrated” by the number of cases where prosecutors decided not to take action or the courts shrugged off breaches as harmless.

Her anger follows a string of embarrassing breaches of the new powers she brought in to replace control orders, called Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures, or TPims.

A 24-year-old suspected al Qaeda supporter and would-be suicide bomber was found to have breached a TPim by travelling though the Olympic Park area five times but was not punished.

“I feel frustrated whenever I see a breach of a TPim not being prosecuted,” Mrs May said in private evidence to the Intelligence and Security Committee.

“I also feel frustrated when I see the breach of a TPim being prosecuted and the courts dismissing it, because they say it is just, sort of, normal natural behaviour or something.”

“So there is a genuine issue which we have not yet found a solution to, about the point at which the CPS … and the courts will be willing to say: yes, this is a breach.”

In the worst breach, Ibrahim Magag, absconded from Camden on Boxing Day in a black cab and has not been found, although he was subject to a TPim involving curfew and monitoring.

TPims were introduced in January 2012 to control foreign terror suspects who cannot be deported. Suspects can be ordered to stay overnight at a specified address and report to a police station every day, or banned from contacting particular individuals.

Labour has argued that TPims have “weakened” public protection against terrorism.

The ISC is now voicing “concern” that each TPim expires after two years with nothing to replace it.

In a report the committee said “The Government must take steps now to ensure that they have sufficient policies in place when TPIMs have reached their limit and cannot be extended.”

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