LONDON — A group of British lawmakers proposed new laws Thursday to ban the use of airports, harbors or highways in the secret rendition of suspected terrorists, while a human rights group urged the government to stop detaining terror suspects without charge.
Parliament's all-party group on extraordinary rendition, an informal committee of about 20 legislators, has published proposed legislation that would allow the prosecution of anyone found complicit in illegal renditions in the future.
The group of lawmakers proposes that the intentional use of British airports, roads or ports for extraordinary rendition be made a criminal offense, and that allowing facilities to be used for illegal transfers be criminalized.
Andrew Tyrie, an opposition Conservative lawmaker and head of the group, said a tightening of the law is necessary to restore public confidence in work by Britain and its allies to pursue terrorists.
A report released Thursday by London-based human rights group Cageprisoners said some terror suspects were detained without trial or charge in British prisons for up to a decade — kept in legal limbo while fighting deportation or extradition to countries that accused them of being terrorists.
The report, based on testimonies from 71 suspected terrorists — most of them Muslims — accused authorities of using secret evidence to deport, detain or put under house arrest individuals they deem a serious risk to national security.
"None of these 71 individuals were put before a court or a jury," lawyer Gareth Peirce said. The suspects never knew what they were accused of and had no way to challenge the evidence against them, said Peirce, who often acts on behalf of terror suspects.
The Home Office said in a statement that Britain faces an "unprecedented threat from terrorism" and the government must protect individual liberties while maintaining national security.
"When dealing with suspected terrorists, prosecution is, and will continue to be, our preferred approach," the statement said. "Where we cannot prosecute, and the individual concerned is a foreign national, we look to detain and then deport them."
Britain has previously acknowledged that Diego Garcia, a British atoll in the Indian Ocean that hosts a U.S. military base, was twice used by the U.S. as a refueling stop during the 2002 secret transfers of two terrorism suspects.
In February, the government said two suspected Pakistani militants detained by British troops in Iraq in 2004 were handed over to the U.S., and later covertly transferred to Afghanistan.
Though the legislation proposed by Tyrie's group is almost certain not to pass into law, he said he will lobby the government to grant time for a House of Commons debate on the issue.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the government is confident there are already legal processes in place to safeguard against sending someone to another country for torture.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said that from September 2001 to March 2008, about 1,500 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism. Less than 200 were eventually convicted of specific terrorism related offenses.
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