Letter: Abuse of power

The ruling last week by the Supreme Court that suspects in Scotland should have a lawyer present when questioning (your report, 27 October) was undoubtedly a victory for civil liberties. However, a much bigger battle awaits.

The coalition government has decided it likes some of New Labour's draconian anti-democratic laws and intends to keep them. Specifically, it has reneged on its promise to abolish control orders.

Nick Clegg agreed to review control orders as part of the coalition agreement with a view to abolishing them and allowing intercept evidence in court.

The main opponents of the abolition of control orders are the security services MI5 and MI6. These are the same organisations which routinely spy on so-called subversives such as anti-war, anti-nuclear and anti-corporate activists. They were the ones who helped Tony Blair fabricate the evidence to take us to war in Iraq.

They also had Uzbek Ambassador Craig Murray fired and smeared for blowing the whistle on their complicity in torture in the so-called war-on-terror.

Control orders are an affront to democracy. They place restrictions on people who have been convicted of no crime and are not allowed to even know what the evidence against them is.

Much of the so-called evidence comes in the form of torture from regimes such as the Saudis. Such a Kafkaesque system has no place in modern Britain.

Habeas corpus is the foundation of our democracy. Winston Churchill could not bring himself to abolish it when we were involved in a real war for survival with the Nazis.

If there is evidence against terror suspects they should be charged and brought before a jury of their peers. That is how democracy works, no matter how abhorrent some people may find it.

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace

Dundee