UK charges less than half of terrorism detainees

LONDON, Mar 5 (Reuters) More than half of all those arrested in Britain under anti-terrorism legislation since the September 11 2001 attacks have been released without any charge, official government figures showed today.

Home Office data revealed that 1,126 people had been held under security laws between the 9/11 attacks and the end of 2006, with another 40 detained as part of anti-terrorism operations.

Of these, 652 were released without charge.

No details were given of the ethnic background of those arrested but Muslim groups have long argued that their community has been unfairly targeted since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

They say the situation had deteriorated since the July 2005 bombings on London's transport system by four British Islamists which left 52 people dead.

''It's not very impressive,'' Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said of the figures.

''We are very concerned that this is alienating a very large section of the community.'' Police say they have thwarted at least five major attacks since the London bombings and have warned that up to 30 more could be in the planning stages.

The Home Office figures showed detectives had charged 221 with terrorism-related crimes and another 186 with offences including murder, explosives crimes and fraud.

So far 40 have been convicted under anti-terrorism laws and 180 with other offences, while 98 are on or awaiting trial.

Senior officers have said that they often have to carry out operations earlier than they would like, leading to some innocent people being arrested.

But they have also admitted that they need to do more to explain their actions to local communities.

This followed anger generated by a flawed raid on a house in the Forest Gate area of east London last June when armed police shot a suspect.

Officers had been acting on intelligence that there was a chemical bomb in the house but later admitted the information had been wrong.

Shadjareh also said Prime Minister Tony Blair's government should think twice about changes they are considering making to existing security laws to allow police to detain terrorism suspects for longer than the existing 28 day period.

Ministers are also pondering proposals to let police question suspects after they have been charged with an offence, which is currently not permissible.

REUTERS SP BST2139