Attorney General considers treason charges for extremist clerics

The government is considering the use of treason laws against three Islamist clerics who voiced support for terrorism, it has emerged today.

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is understood to have discussed the idea of using treason laws to prosecute extremist clerics, with Director of Public Prosecutions Ken McDonald.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s head of anti-terrorism is due to meet with senior Scotland Yard officers this week to discuss the possibility.

The announcement follows television interviews by three prominent clerics in the wake of the July 7 London bombings and the July 21 attempted attacks in the capital.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, from the extremist al-Muhajiroun said that Muslims should not inform police if they knew of plans to carry out terror attacks in the UK. He also voiced support for Muslims who carried out attacks against British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Another former member of al-Muhajiroun, Abu Uzair, who is now in the successor group, the Saviour Sect, told BBC 2’s ‘Newsnight’ programme that the September 11 attacks were “magnificent”.

British-born Abu Izzadeen, a spokesperson for the group al-Ghurabaa (the Strangers), told the same programme that the July 7 bombings were “mujahideen activity” and said they should make people “wake up and smell the coffee”.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office stressed that no decision had yet been made on whether charges of treason would be brought against the three clerics.

A range of charges, which could be brought against the men, are expected to be discussed. These include solicitation or incitement to murder and incitement to withhold information known to be of use to police, as well as treason and incitement to treason.

Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of anti-terror legislation, said that the use of treason laws was not practical or sensible. The Liberal Democrat peer said that treason tended to apply to war between nations and said: “I doubt there is a lawyer still alive and working who has ever appeared in any part of a treason case and I think we should tread in that historic territory very carefully.”

The announcement of the treason charges discussions follows Prime Minister Tony Blair’s announcement of a series of proposals aimed at tackling the problems of extremists. These includes plans to deport those who fostered hatred, advocated violence to further their beliefs or justified or validated such violence; the introduction of a new offence of condoning or glorifying terrorism; and the automatic refusal of asylum to anyone connected with terrorism.

(KMcA/SP)