LONDON — More than half of those arrested involving terrorism-related offenses in Britain since September 2001 have been released without being charged, according to government statistics released Wednesday.
Of the 1,471 suspects detained, 521 have been charged with crimes and 196 have been convicted of terrorism-related charges, the British Home Office survey shows.
Another 819 arrestees were released without being charged.
Advocates for those arrested quickly branded the data as evidence of flawed tactics by British security officials.
“We submit this is a very low conviction rate of those arrested for terrorist-related offenses and signifies that the security services are acting on poor or misleading intelligence,” said Mohammed Ayub, an attorney for three Pakistani students recently arrested on terrorism charges but then released. “Continuation of such operations is likely to lead to a lack of public confidence in the security services.”
To the contrary, Policing and Security Minister Vernon Coaker said, the statistics make clear the “real and serious threat from terrorism” that Britain faces.
“The figures outlined today show 196 terrorist-related convictions between September 2001 and March 2008,” he said. “There can be no doubt about the nature and complexity of the threat: aspirations to use a dirty bomb; the targeting of shopping centers, nightclubs and our transport infrastructure; the desire to inflict mass casualties on the public without regard to race, creed or color; the aspiration to commit terrorist acts abroad; and the encouragement and support of terrorism both in the U.K. and overseas.”
Nearly all terrorism-related suspects arrested in Britain since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States have been self-professed Muslims — 91 percent, according to the report.
The largest number of convicts are of Asian ethnic origin, with whites next and then blacks, according to the government data.
“This astonishingly low number (of convictions) means one of three things: Either the police are arresting the wrong people, or they are failing to bring enough evidence on which a charge can be based, or the evidence produced is insufficient to convince juries,” Conservative party spokeswoman for security Pauline Neville-Jones told The Guardian.
