IRR News
birmingham post
Police stonewall inquiry into Birmingham spy cameras
Police have refused to answer questions at an inquiry convened by the Birmingham City Council into the setting up of covert cameras in the city earlier this year paid for by the Home Office Prevent fund.
24 August 2010 (external article)
comment
Asylum battles: two victories and one setback
By Frances Webber
The rights of asylum seekers were upheld in two recent court judgments - but those facing deportation on national security grounds were denied justice in a third.
12 August 2010 (1548 words)
independent Officers charged with assaulting Babar Ahmad
Four police officers have been accused of a 'serious, gratuitous and prolonged' assault on Babar Ahmad during his arrest in 2003. The four face charges of actual bodily harm.
12 August 2010 (external article)
guardian Anti terror hotline radio advert banned
A radio advert by ACPO has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for potentially causing 'serious offence'. The advert encouraged people to report suspicious actions such as keeping curtains closed or paying in cash.
11 August 2010 (external article)
Stop and ... spy?
Are the security services in the UK so desperate to recruit spies and informers that they stop random travellers coming to the UK in order to recruit them?
4 August 2010 (582 words)
bbc news Former terror suspects able to sue over control orders
The government has lost an appeal against an earlier High Court decision to allow two former terror suspects who had been under control orders for three years, known as AE and AF, to claim damages for loss of liberty and violations of human rights.
28 July 2010 (external article)
End of Prevent?
The government's controversial preventing violent extremism programme is apparently to be dismantled.
15 July 2010 (282 words)
guardian Section 44 stop and search powers to be restricted
Home secretary Teresa May has announced that police officers will no longer be able to stop and search individuals using section 44 powers under the Terrorism Act, following a European Court of Human Rights ruling which found them to be unlawful.
9 July 2010 (external article)
wandsworth guardian Extradition of Babar Ahmed halted
The European Court of Human Rights has halted the extradition of the four British nationals, including Babar Ahmed, to the US on the basis that extradition would be 'cruel and unusual punishment'.
8 July 2010 (external article)
bbc news Police 'stop and search' powers curtailed in NI
Police power for random stop and searches, use of which increased by 7,000 in 2008/09, have been suspended by the police service in Northern Ireland after a European Court ruled them illegal.
8 July 2010 (external article)
birmingham mail Hidden cameras scheme suspended after community uproar
A scheme by police with funding from a counter terrorism unit involving the use of 218 cameras,72 of which were hidden, in the Washwood Heath area of Birmingham has been temporarily scraped after local concerns were raised.
5 July 2010 (external article)
interview
Fighting ghosts: an interview with Husein Al-Samamara
Below we publish an interview with Husein Al-Samamara, currently subjected to draconian immigration bail conditions in the UK as he fights against his deportation to Jordan, where he was imprisoned and tortured.
1 July 2010 (3812 words)
click liverpool Neo-Nazi's face jail terms
Aryan Strike Force founders Trevor Hannington and Michael Heaton have been jailed for twenty-four and thirty months respectively for inciting racial hatred and possessing information for use in an act of terrorism.
28 June 2010 (external article)
channel 4 news Guilty verdict for Aryan Strike Force founders
Trevor Hannington and Michael Heaton have been found guilty at Liverpool crown court of race hate and terrorism charges. The convictions are the latest in a series of trials involving far-right extremists over the last two years.
25 June 2010 (external article)
Control orders challenged
In an important ruling for people under control orders, the Supreme Court has recognised that separation from family members can turn internal exile into the equivalent of a prison sentence.
24 June 2010 (675 words)
guardian Terror law reviewer calls for changes to stop and search
Lord Carlisle, the independent reviewer of anti-terror laws, is to call for further police powers to allow random stop and searches after similar laws were ruled unlawful by the European court.
24 June 2010 (external article)
guardian Legal challenge to surveillance of Muslims
Human rights lawyers have begun gathering evidence to challenge Project Champion, the counter-terrorism surveillance project due to start in August, in which two Muslim suburbs of Birmingham will be monitored by 150 numberplate recognition cameras.
14 June 2010 (external article)
bbc news Thousands stopped and searched illegally
Home Office figures show thousands of people were illegally stopped and searched under section 44 of the Terrorism Act after powers authorised by the act were used incorrectly.
10 June 2010 (external article)
guardian Political radicals monitored in EU surveillance programme
The UK is taking part in a European programme that uses systematic information gathering to monitor 'domestic extremists'.
9 June 2010 (external article)
guardian 150 surveillance cameras to track Muslims in Birmingham
A counter-terrorism grant has funded a £3m project, in which around 150 numberplate recognition cameras have been installed in the Muslim areas of Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath in Birmingham.
7 June 2010 (external article)
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