Britain frees terrorism suspect held for three years

1.00pm - By JASON BENNETTO and NIGEL MORRIS

David Blunkett's emergency anti-terrorism laws came under fire last night after he ruled a suspect interned without trial for nearly three years no longer posed a national threat.

The Home Secretary was accused of running a "mini Guantanamo" after the suspect, who was accused of being linked to al Qaeda and Algerian terrorists, was released without charge.

The Algerian asylum seeker, who is in his early 30s, is now free to live in Britain. The man known only as "D", is one of 12 foreign nationals being held without trial or charge at high security jails, including Belmarsh, in treatment that has been likened to the detention of suspects in Guantanamo Bay.

There has also been growing evidence that the 12 detainees are suffering mental health problems - chiefly because they have no idea when they will be released.

Opposition parties and civil rights groups last night attacked the detention system arguing that it was unjust and threatened to create a "mini-Guantanamo in the middle of Britain".

D was among the first foreigners to be held under the emergency measures passed within weeks of the September 11 atrocities, and has been imprisoned since 17 December 2001.

Just 11 weeks ago D was being described by an independent commission as a terrorist supporter and a threat to national security, yet the Home Office was unable to reveal why he was now a free man.

His solicitor said he was "shocked" and "speechless" when he was told yesterday morning that the Home Secretary has decided he should be released.

He was freed from Woodhill Prison, near Milton Keynes, at about 3pm and is believed to be with family and friends.

Natalia Garcia, a lawyer from the firm Tyndallwoods, said her client "was totally choked when I told him he was being released - all he could say was 'I don't understand, I don't understand'.

"He feels he's been locked up for three years just on a whim. He has been very, very badly affected by his time in prison. He said he felt like he was buried alive and has become depressed and anxious about his treatment."

She added: "There is no explanation for why they have released him, just as we were never given any details of why he was detained in the first place. It's been scandalous from start to finish."

She continued: "He was taken from his home in the early hours of the morning and put in a high security prison without even being questioned by the police or going to trial.

"There have been very vague allegations that he knows people who are connected to alleged members of al Qaeda, but we have been allowed to challenge this.

"He came to Britain seeking safety, but found that the very state that was supposed to provide sanctuary has treated in this unjust and repressive way."

D lost an appeal against his imprisonment in October last year when the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) backed the Home Secretary's decision to imprison him because of alleged links with the Algerian terror organisation, GIA, and the al Qaeda network. He had previously been arrested and prosecuted in France in 1994 for membership of the GIA.

His detention was upheld again by SIAC in July, when it concluded: "We accept that D has a long history of involvement in terrorist support activity and has the ability and commitment, despite past periods of detention, to resume those activities were he to be at liberty in the UK with those of his contacts who are here and with other extremists."

But Mr Blunkett issued a statement yesterday in which he said: "I have concluded, on the basis of all the information available to me, that the weight of evidence in relation to 'D' at the current time does not justify the continuance of the certificate [that allows for his internment]."

A Home Office spokeswoman added: "The Home Secretary has always been clear that if new information came to light or if there were changes in any circumstances, he would act upon those."

The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 permits the indefinite internment of foreign nationals suspected of international terrorism provided they cannot be charged or removed from Britain.

But Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "It's a remarkable turn-around to release him and calls into question the whole policy of holding detainees without charge.

"Unless Belmarsh is to become our Guantanamo Bay, the Home Secretary must rethink it, so that people are either charged on the basis of evidence or released."

Robert Marshall-Andrews, the Labour MP and barrister, added that internment without trial was "completely alien" to the British reputation for justice.

"It does our reputation terrible damage that we should operate our own mini-Guantanamo in the middle of Britain," he said.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: "Neither the public, nor the detainees, have any idea of what the men have allegedly done or why D is now 'safe' for release when just 11 weeks ago he was deemed a threat to national security.

"It's welcome that after nearly three years a man detained with neither charge nor trial is to be released. However, the Home Secretary is acting as judge and jury in relation to him and all of those detainees still held."

- INDEPENDENT