"Harassment of protesters, journalists and photographers under the guise of anti-terrorism must stop"
Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman and London MEP Sarah Ludford has urged the new UK Government to press on with reform of section 44 of the Terrorism Act that gives police broad stop and search powers under the Terrorism Act.
She made the call after the European Court of Human Rights condemned UK’s stop & search laws.
The Court recently rejected a UK Government appeal and confirmed its January decision in the case of Gillan & Quinton (arms trade protesters stopped in London in 2003) that the UK's broad stop and search powers under the Terrorism Act are illegal.
The Court ruled that the powers breach the European Convention on Human Rights' privacy safeguards by being too broad in scope and not requiring prior reasonable suspicion. The whole of Greater London has been designated a zone where police can stop & search anyone without cause.
MEP Ludford appealed to the Government to reform the law that allows the “police to stop and search without reason for suspicion."
She went on to say that: "The new Government has made a great start in the area of civil liberties, abolishing ID cards and child fingerprinting and announcing legal constraints on snooping powers. But the harassment of protesters, journalists and photographers under the guise of anti-terrorism must stop."
