One of the government's claims is that criminal suspects in Italy can be held for months without charge. This has now been dismissed by Italian parliamentary authorities. They have confirmed to Commons librarians that the maximum period of pre-charge detention under Italian law is four days.
There are a number of flaws with the government's "safeguard" that the Home Secretary must then take a decision to extend the 28 day limit (which used to be 14 days) to Parliament for approval.
What if Parliament is in recess? What level of detail is to be given to MPs to enable them to decide? If MPs are given that information, how can the accused have a fair trial afterwards? Will any vote in Parliament be whipped? As a general point, why turn Parliament into a case-by-case forum for judicial decisions?
Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, is writing to Gordon Brown this week to say: "I am concerned by the British government's suggestion to allow terrorism suspects to be detained for 42 days without charge ... This would be way out of line with equivalent detention limits elsewhere in Europe. We need to be more restrictive with such measures. Keeping people detained for such long periods before prosecution is excessive and will prove counter-productive."
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