UK Courts Are Failing In The Fight Against Terrorism

Terror: a wreckage of the London bombings

More Than Half Of Terror Convicts Will Be Freed In Four Years -- The London Evening Standard

More than half of recent terrorist convicts sent to prison will be free within five years despite continuing ministerial warnings about the risk of a new attack in Britain, official figures revealed today.

The Home Office statistics - which also show that nearly two thirds of all terrorist inmates are UK citizens - state that 56 offenders were jailed for terror related crimes in the 12 month period ending in March last year.

Ten were given life sentences and a further 14 were jailed for more than 10 years or given an “indeterminate” term under which they will only be released when it is judged safe to do so.

The other 32 were all handed sentences of less than 10 years, however, which means that because of rules allowing offenders to be released automatically after half their sentence, they will be freed within a maximum of five years.

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Just One In Eight Terror Arrests Ends With Guilty Verdict, Admits Home Office -- The Independent

Civil rights campaigners fear 'terror powers' are used indiscriminately

Seven out of eight people arrested under Britain's terror laws since the al-Qa'ida attacks on America in 2001 were not convicted of a terrorism offence, figures released yesterday show.

More than three-quarters of those imprisoned were given sentences of less than 10 years and a half will be released in less than five years.

Between 11 September 2001 and 31 March 2008, there were 1,471 arrests under terrorism offences in Britain. Of these, 521 resulted in a charge of some form, with 222 people charged with terror offences, and 118 people charged with terror-related offences, such as conspiracy to murder.

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My Comment: The UK has positioned itself to be a target for a major terrorism incident in the near future. According to former PM Tony Blair, the UK has been successful in intercepting numerous threats .... but (from my point of view) by being incapable of keeping these individuals in prison, it is only a question of time before another major attack is launched and is successful.