UK 'terror' airport stops under new scrutiny
UK 'terror' airport stops under new scrutiny
A controversial clause in the UK's counter-terrorism act has come under renewed attention from independent reviewers.
London, UK - Usman Ali has grown used to the routine whenever he passes through an airport on his way in or out of the UK.
As he walks to catch a flight, or shortly after touching down, he says he will be stopped by police and questioned without access to a lawyer and without the right to silence.
His laptop and mobile phone are examined and their data copied. He has also been searched, fingerprinted, obliged to give a DNA sample and photographed repeatedly.
Ali, a London-based Muslim cleric who travels frequently as part of his work for a charity delivering aid to Syrian refugees, says he has been stopped six times this year alone, and many times prior to that, often for several hours.
Police and other border officials are able to do this using Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, a controversial piece of legislation that allows them to detain anybody even without reasonable cause for suspicion.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/07/2013721122642771818.html?utm_content=features&utm_campaign=features&utm_source=twitter&utm_term=rss&utm_medium=tweet
