Liberty - Protecting civil liberties, promoting human rights

Despite a new name and tweaks to some conditions, the new “control order-lite” will still constitute punishment without trial, ruining innocents’ lives and allowing potentially dangerous people to evade prosecution. The celebrities added their voices to the 3,000 members of the public who signed Liberty’s 2010 control order petition in protest at the worst legislative legacy of the war on terror. Both coalition partners opposed the regime while in opposition.

The rebranded system will still include electronic tagging and a residence requirement.  Controlees will not be able to meet with certain people or go to certain buildings – although it will be easier for them to use the internet.  The control orders will be limited to two years, however if it is possible to make a new order as soon as the existing one expires, then this constraint would be illusory.  Crucially, the orders will still be initiated by the Home Secretary and the regime will continue to run outside the criminal justice system of investigation, arrest, charge and conviction.

Actor Emma Thompson said:

“I've seen for myself the damage control orders have done to entirely innocent people. I think they make dangerous people even more dangerous.”

Writer, actor and director Simon Callow said:

"We must fight terror by asserting our values, not by negating them. Control orders are fundamentally unjust; they must go."

Musician and activist Annie Lennox said:

“Anyone subject to a control order is living under constant and indefinite suspicion – not just from the authorities, but from their communities, friends and all who know them. Control orders by-pass criminal justice and the safeguards that guarantee fair trial.”

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty said:

“The Government bottled it on control orders and proposes to keep a regime which ruins innocent lives but tips off the truly dangerous. These famous friends of Liberty share the hopes of the British public – for terror suspects to be charged and prosecuted within the criminal justice system.”   

Notes to editors

1. See our full celebrity line-up - Unusual Suspects (PDF) and find out more about the campaign
   
2. Read Liberty’s submission to the Home Secretary’s Review of Counter-Terror and Security Powers, ‘From War to Law’ (PDF)
3. The Coalition Government’s Review of Counter-Terrorism and Security Powers was published on the 26 January 2011. Read online
4. See Liberty’s petition on control orders - Time's Up for Control Orders (PDF) 
5. Emma Thompson earned an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1992 for her role in Howard’s End, and in for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1995 for Sense and Sensibility. Annie Lennox won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2004 for Into the West, recorded for the third film in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
6. In January 2011 Liberty released polling that revealed that the public prefer surveillance of terror suspects to gather evidence for prosecution rather than the control order regime. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 1,952 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 4th - 5th January 2011.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).  Those polled were asked:

Which of the following is a better way of dealing with people suspected of terrorism, when they have not been arrested or charged?

• Restricting where suspects can go and who they can meet, electronically tagging them and banning them from using telephones and the internet
• NOT imposing such restrictions, but instead placing them under intensive surveillance and monitoring their communication, in order to gather evidence with which to prosecute them
• Don’t  know

46% of respondents favoured surveillance with a view to prosecution compared with 40% who preferred the control order system.