UK Forced to Rethink Terrorism Laws After Trial Collapse

‘The collapse of a trial at London’s Old Bailey after it was revealed the British Government and its intelligence agency MI6 had assisted anti-Assad militias could have lasting implications for other terrorist cases and powers of police arrest.

The trial hearing centred on a Swedish national, Bherlin Gildo, who was arrested in 2014 at London’s Heathrow airport on his way from Copenhagen to Manila. He was detained under schedule 7 of the 2000 Terrorism Act, which provides for the detention of a person in a port or airport and allows for the examination and detention of goods “for the purpose of determining whether they have been used in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.

Gildo was accused of attending a terrorist training camp and receiving weapons training as well as possessing information likely to be useful to a terrorist. However, the prosecution withdrew the charges, saying that – after reviewing the evidence – “many matters were raised [they] did not know at the outset”.’

Read more: UK Forced to Rethink Terrorism Laws After Trial Collapse