LOC13:42
10:42 GMT
LONDON, Feb 25 (KUNA) -- A total of 201 people were arrested on suspicion
of terrorism last year, UK Home Office figures showed Friday.
Of those, 66 were eventually charged, 17 under terror laws.
In the year ending September 2009 there were 200,444 people stopped and
searched under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, down 12 percent on the
previous year.
The number of terrorism arrests is slightly up on last year, when 178
arrests were made.
There have been 1,759 terrorism arrests since September 11 2001, the
figures show.
For the year ending September 30 2009, of the 66 people charged, 17 (26
percent) were charged under terrorism legislation while seven (11 percent)
were charged with terrorism-related offences.
The most common charge under terror laws since 2001 is possession of an
article for terrorism purposes (30 percent) and fundraising (14 percent).
The charge rate of 33 percent is just above that for indictable offences,
which is 29 percent.
The figures show that since September 11 2001, 383 suspects have been
charged with terrorism-related offences, with 310 prosecutions completed.
Some 74 percent of those prosecuted were convicted.
Last year there were 29 terror trials, with 86 percent resulting in a
conviction.
The figures show the number of stop and searches in the second quarter of
2009-10 was 53 percent down on the same period the previous year.
Some 15 percent of those stopped classified themselves as Asian or Asian
British and 10 percent said they were black or black British.
The arrest rate resulting from searches under Section 44, which must take
place within a designated area, was just 0.5 percent, with 965 people detained.
The Metropolitan Police also made 1,896 stop and searches under Section 43
of the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows an officer to stop a person they
suspect to be a terrorist.
One in five of those stopped identified themselves as being Asian.
The Government's anti-terror laws were thrown into turmoil last January
after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that police who use
anti-terrorism powers to stop and search members of the public without
suspicion are acting illegally.
In a surprise ruling, the judges said Section 44 of the Terrorism Act
violated individual freedoms.
The court said the powers violated Article 8 of the European Convention on
Human Rights which guarantees the right to private life against the power of
the state. Anti-terrorism chiefs ordered an escalation in the use of Section
44 powers after the failed bomb attack against the Tiger Tiger nightclub in
London's Haymarket in 2007.
That resulted in more than a quarter of a million people being searched in
2008-09 - the highest on record and more than twice the level of the previous
year.
But after a public outcry over the use of searches, which
disproportionately effect minority groups, Metropolitan Police Commissioner
Sir Paul Stephenson ordered them to be scaled back.
The powers allow officers to stop anyone in a specified area without the
need for reasonable suspicion.
From last year, the powers were limited to specific parts of London,
including Westminster. (end)
he.ema
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