Terror Suspects Escape Custody

It has emerged that two terrorism suspects have escaped police while under control orders. Neither man can be named for legal reasons. One went missing a fortnight ago but the other is believed to have been missing for months.

The control orders are used in place of detention when there is evidence to link them with terrorism but not enough to make a successful prosecution. The government brought this in to avoid having people in prison indefinitely without charge.

The Lib Dems are practically gloating over this. While sensible people would demand tighter security they have a different idea for solving the problem:

As we have always made clear, the danger of control orders is that they short-circuit due process and keep suspects in a state of limbo.

Our aim must be to get suspects into court and, where they are guilty, convicted.

This should act as a spur for the Government to develop more robust ways to get suspects into court in the first place, such as using intercept evidence.

In other words, to prevent prisoners escaping from control orders we should release them entirely.