Australia; No-warrant terrorism raids proposed

August 13, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

The proposed reforms include giving police "emergency powers" to enter a building without a warrant.

www.abc.net.au

Australia – The Federal Government has unveiled plans to toughen its counter-terrorism laws, including a change to allow police to break into a suspect’s home without getting approval from a judge.

It also wants to make it easier to stop suspects getting out of jail on bail.

But the Government is planning to put a cap on the amount of time suspects can be held without charge.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland says the tougher laws would protect Australians.

“The Government is committed to ensuring the focus of Australia’s national security and counter-terrorism laws remains on preventing a terrorist attack from occurring in the first place,” he said.

But some argue toughening the laws would have the opposite effect.

Nicola McGarrity from the Terrorism Law Project at the University of New South Wales says the laws could take away the protection of the judiciary.

“It’s fundamentally undermining the safeguards that exist,” she said.

“It’s taking away the protection of having a judicial officer make a warrant.”

But new limits will be imposed on other controversial powers.

In the case of Dr Mohammed Haneef, who was detained in 2007, police were allowed to question him without charging him for a total of one day.

The clock stops ticking, however, when the suspect goes to sleep or the police need time to check with agencies overseas.

In the end, Dr Haneef was held for 12 days without charge before a magistrate ordered his release. Read full article…