Anti-terrorist asset-freezing orders introduced during Gordon
Brown's spell as Chancellor are legally flawed because Parliament
was "bypassed", the High Court ruled today.
The judgment, which is subject to a possible appeal, is the
latest in a series of major blows to the Government's anti-terror
strategy.
Mr Justice Collins, sitting at the High Court in London,
allowed legal challenges by five men deprived of the right
to control their own property and money because they were
suspected of "facilitating acts of terrorism".
In total around £500,000 of assets belonging to 70
suspected terrorists has been frozen.
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The five denied terrorist links and protested to the court
over the "humiliating and devastating" impact designation
had had on their daily lives.
Although never charged with criminal offences, the five -
referred to as A, K, M, Q and G - were designated terror suspects
last year under the provisions of two Orders in Council.
Orders of this kind are not the subject of the same parliamentary
scrutiny as normal parliamentary legislation, said the judge.
Each Order was laid before Parliament the day after it was
made and came into force on the following day. The Orders
were not the proper way to approach asset freezing, and Parliament
should step in, the judge ruled.
