Terrorism Act: Banning groups

I am writing to urge you to attend a demonstration on Tuesday 8th May at noon outside the Home Office, Queen Anne's Gate, SW1.

This demonstration has been organised to show our opposition to one of the key provisions of one of this government's most dangerous pieces of legislation - the new Terrorism Act. In February Jack Straw used his power under the Act to "proscribe" twenty one foreign political groups who have members in this country: this means that membership (even professed membership) of those groups becomes a criminal offence.

Banning organisations and criminalising membership is a serious attack on the basic rights of free speech and free assembly. If people involved in organisations commit offences, they can be arrested and prosecuted under the existing law. If there is no evidence, guilt by association is wrong in principle. The new Act extends the definition of "terrorism" so widely that it encompasses even those suspected of being involved in destroying GM crops.

This law is draconian: it is now a criminal offence to help organise a meeting which will be addressed by someone who professes to belong to a prescribed organisation. The person does not have to be an actual member of the organisation; at the meeting, he or she need not talk about the organisation at all, could oppose the activities of the organisation, could advocate non-violence or, indeed could talk instead about his or her favourite recipes. The maximum penalty for all these "offences" is tenyears in prison.

This is a law supported by a government that professes a commitment to human rights and passed by a Parliament which is supposed to protect us from draconian laws.

I hope you can attend. Please circulate this information as widely as you can.

For more information about Liberty's position on the Terrorism Act see
www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk.

John Wadham


John Wadham
Director of Liberty
020 7378 3660

21 Tabard Street, London SE1 4LA