• National security cases would be held with no jury
• Reform of murder law also on coroners and justice bill
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
The Guardian, Wednesday 14 January 2009
Article history
Jack Straw, the justice secretary, will today revive his plan to hold inquests that involve aspects of national security in private without a jury when the coroners and justice bill is published.
The controversial measure, which could be invoked in cases like those of British servicemen killed by American forces in Iraq and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on the London tube, was shelved last month when it faced severe criticism during the passage of the Counter-Terrorism Act.
Straw is to confirm today that the bill will also contain a proposal first floated two years ago to prevent high-profile convicted criminals from profiting from published accounts of their crimes.
He is to introduce a civil recovery scheme targeting the profits made by criminals serving sentences of at least two years without making the publishing, film and media industries criminally liable at the same time.
Accounts of prison life, such as those published by Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken, will be exempt from the new provisions as will accounts of criminal activity that was never punished, accounts of other people's crimes or truly fictional works. The publishing industry has already voiced its anxiety about the plan amid fears that bestselling author and former drug smuggler Howard Marks could be among those targeted as well as recent autobiographies by "serial hostage taker" Charles Bronson and former paramilitary leader, Johnny Adair. But it is not yet clear whether the civil recovery scheme will operate retrospectively.
The coroners and justice bill will also contain the first overhaul for 50 years of the law on murder, with reforms of the partial defences of provocation and diminished responsibility.
The reintroduction of the plan to hold inquests into deaths involving aspects of national security with a specially selected coroner sitting without a jury is expected to lead to renewed parliamentary opposition. The joint human rights committee has already described the proposal as "an astonishing provision" with serious implications for the obligation, under the European convention on human rights, to provide an adequate and effective investigation where a person has been killed as a result of the use of force by a state agent.
Ministers believe the proposal is needed to enable inquests to be held in cases which involve material that shouldn't be made public in the interests of national security. But the secret inquest plan could also apply in cases which could affect Britain's relationship with its allies.
Eighteen months ago Oxfordshire coroner Andrew Walker ruled that the killing of a British soldier, Lance Corporal Matty Hull, when his convoy in Iraq was fired on by a US pilot was an unlawful criminal act. Walker went on to strongly criticise the Ministry of Defence in a series of inquests into deaths of servicemen in Iraq.
In the Menezes case, the problem was circumvented by security services officers giving evidence anonymously.
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
The Guardian, Wednesday 14 January 2009
Article history
Jack Straw, the justice secretary, will today revive his plan to hold inquests that involve aspects of national security in private without a jury when the coroners and justice bill is published.
The controversial measure, which could be invoked in cases like those of British servicemen killed by American forces in Iraq and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on the London tube, was shelved last month when it faced severe criticism during the passage of the Counter-Terrorism Act.
Straw is to confirm today that the bill will also contain a proposal first floated two years ago to prevent high-profile convicted criminals from profiting from published accounts of their crimes.
He is to introduce a civil recovery scheme targeting the profits made by criminals serving sentences of at least two years without making the publishing, film and media industries criminally liable at the same time.
Accounts of prison life, such as those published by Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken, will be exempt from the new provisions as will accounts of criminal activity that was never punished, accounts of other people's crimes or truly fictional works. The publishing industry has already voiced its anxiety about the plan amid fears that bestselling author and former drug smuggler Howard Marks could be among those targeted as well as recent autobiographies by "serial hostage taker" Charles Bronson and former paramilitary leader, Johnny Adair. But it is not yet clear whether the civil recovery scheme will operate retrospectively.
The coroners and justice bill will also contain the first overhaul for 50 years of the law on murder, with reforms of the partial defences of provocation and diminished responsibility.
The reintroduction of the plan to hold inquests into deaths involving aspects of national security with a specially selected coroner sitting without a jury is expected to lead to renewed parliamentary opposition. The joint human rights committee has already described the proposal as "an astonishing provision" with serious implications for the obligation, under the European convention on human rights, to provide an adequate and effective investigation where a person has been killed as a result of the use of force by a state agent.
Ministers believe the proposal is needed to enable inquests to be held in cases which involve material that shouldn't be made public in the interests of national security. But the secret inquest plan could also apply in cases which could affect Britain's relationship with its allies.
Eighteen months ago Oxfordshire coroner Andrew Walker ruled that the killing of a British soldier, Lance Corporal Matty Hull, when his convoy in Iraq was fired on by a US pilot was an unlawful criminal act. Walker went on to strongly criticise the Ministry of Defence in a series of inquests into deaths of servicemen in Iraq.
In the Menezes case, the problem was circumvented by security services officers giving evidence anonymously.
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