Jenny who is also a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, visited Belmarsh Prison yesterday (Monday)where nine foreign nationals have been imprisoned without charge or sentence – Britain’s very own Guantanamo Bay.
Jenny said, “We pride ourselves that we have democratic society, and a sense of fair play, while terrorists want to replace all this with a hell on earth."
"But we are locking people up without their hearing what the evidence is against them, ordering them detained at a secret tribunal, and not even telling them how long they are being imprisoned for."
“It’s clear that the democracy we’re trying to defend is looking very tarnished indeed. I will be calling on MPs to vote for this Act to be repealed."
"If the intelligence services are picking up people alleged to be involved in terrorism, then charges should be brought and open trials held."
"The spies have not been very good at finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; we don’t know how good they are at finding terrorists in the UK, and we should all be worried about whether they are applying themselves to the right targets.”
Wednesday’s press conference will be hosted by Kevin McNamara MP and attended by human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce, Shami Chakrabarti (Director of Liberty), Jeremy Croft (Amnesty International), Hugo Charlton (Chair of the Green Party & the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities), and Dr Siddiqui (Leader of the Muslim Parliament).
NOTES FOR EDITORS
On Wednesday MPs will be debating a report from the Privy Counsellor Review Committee recommending that detention without charge or trial should be dropped and replaced in a manner consistent with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.
ENDS