Vivé british justice

bugler

Psychiatrists at Britain's highest security mental hospital have protested against the Home Secretary's treatment of a dying and mentally disturbed Palestinian being held without trial under new anti-terror laws.
Doctors at Broadmoor last night accused David Blunkett of 'unprecedented political interference' after he ignored their advice and ordered them to take charge of Mahmoud Abu Rideh, a torture victim who suffers serious psychiatric problems...

http://www.observer.co.uk/libertywatch/story/0,1373,759208,00.html

Blunkett, presumably still pissed off he had to let Satpal Ram out, is fighting back! Take it, potential troublemakers with mental problems due to torture!

pro_gnostic_8

The oldest trick in the "Terrorists Handbook" is act mentally deficient if you are caught.

If the security services and Secretary Blunkett are of the opinion that this individual is a threat to public safety, then I'm inclined to believe them rather than this Arab's solicitor or the Guardian.

If, on the other hand, he does have a propensity for "slashing himself", isn't he -- and the public -- safer while he is in Broadmoor?

bugler

I see, despite the fact that he is a torture victim, and that all these expert doctors whose care he is in say that he has mental problems, and he HAS a histroy of mental illness, you're inclinded to believe Blunkett, and the british sescurity service, on what basis again? Good faith I suppose,after all, when was the last time they made a mistake?!

Btw, if you can point me towards a recent case where terrorists successfully used mental illness as a grounds for escaping custody I'd be grateful. It would remove my suspicion that your talking out your anal pasage. Did you read the article?

Despite advice from psychiatrists that Abu Rideh poses no threat to the public

Amnesty International and the European Union's committee on torture have described the conditions under which Abu Rideh and his fellow detainees have been kept as 'barbaric'.

Abu Rideh had a long history of mental illness before he was arrested and was already under the care of psychiatrists.

Do these doctors not know what they're talking about?

You think having a propensity to cut yourself means you should be locked up with serial killers in a maximum security jail?

Shinji

Trust me, the longer you live in Britain the less inclined you'll be to believe a bloody word Blunkett says. The man is Tony's right hand, in the "utterly extreme right" sense of the term - he has shown only scant regard for basic civil and human rights and freedoms in his pursuit of what is, effectively, a police state.

Britain has more cameras per head of population than anywhere else in the world, despite no proof being offered that they reduce crime. He wants more. Britain has some of the most staunchly anti-privacy laws relating to digital information - and he wants to extend the RIP bill. The new "anti-terror" laws are, effectively, internment - holding people without charge or trial because they might be involved in "terrorism", whatever that's being defined as this week.

As ever, the removal of rights and freedoms comes under the banner of making us "safe"...

Clintons Cat

i agree with what shinji says 100% easpicially about the parallells with internment being preposed.

Also the "entitlements card" in blunkets preposal would give the authorities,banks and any one who demanded it (credit agencies etc) access to peoples medical records as they are all planned to be stored on one centralised chip.
it might reduce benifit fraud and susposedly terrorism though how this would work is unspecifiedbut the administrative costs of setting up and maintaining it will certainly offset any financial windfall from reducing fraud,and also at the same time set up a whole new lucrative blackmarket for chipped cards and scanners/unauthorised readers.

pencil

Missing the point:


No ONE, No Authority, No Government, No 'Home Secretary' or No 'Homeland security head', should be able to lock me (you, or anyone) else up against my will, without bringing me before a jury.

I don't care if they think he's a terrorist or he's crazy or a murderer or a thief - no-one should be locked up without a trial.

We keep hearing our western government telling us that we live in a free democratised societies, why do they keep acting like we live in a fascist regimes?