A 23-year-old Heathrow airport worker who dubbed herself the “lyrical terrorist” today became the first woman to be convicted under the government’s anti-terror legislation.
Samina Malik, who burst into tears on hearing the verdict, wrote poems entitled How To Behead and The Living Martyrs and stocked a “library” of documents useful to terrorists.
On the social networking site Hi5 she listed her interests as: “Helping the mujaheddin in any way which I can … I am well known as lyrical terrorist.”
The jury at the Old Bailey found Malik guilty by a majority of 10 to one of possessing records likely to be used for terrorism.
– The Guardian
Tony Blair’s determination to turn the war on terror into a permanent undeclared state of emergency in Britain, where the “rules of the game have changed”, ended in defeat two years ago when he failed to raise the limit on detention of terrorist suspects without charge from 14 to 90 days. With a parliamentary compromise of 28 days in the bag – already far longer than any other state in the western world – it might have been expected that his successor would be content to leave well alone. Not a bit of it. Gordon Brown is back for more, pressing the case this week for the right to imprison people without charge for 56 days, or however close to that figure he can manage.
– The Guardian
The main police watchdog added to the pressure on Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, today when it said that he had tried to block an investigation into the shooting of the Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station two years ago.
The 168-page report from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) details the events on 22 July, 2005, when Mr de Menezes was shot dead by two specialist firearms officers who had mistaken him for a suicide bomber.
– The Times
The number of terrorists in prison in Britain is expected to rise by more than tenfold over the next 10 years.
Internal projections by the Prison Service suggest that the number of inmates held on terrorist offences will rise from 131 today to 1,600 by 2017.
About 1,300 of them will be Category A inmates, who require the highest level of security.
– The Telegraph