One Week before the end of Habeas Corpus!

On 22nd September, a mere week from today, Britons may begin to lose the centuries held right to not be imprisoned without trial. It is at risk, as with so much else of importance, from the European Union acting under the ceded authority of the supposed democratic members of Britain's three main parties. This matter seems worthy of detailed background which thanks to various individuals named in the links and attachments I am now able to provide from this blog. I suggest the paper titled Will giving up th UK's veto over Home Affairs threaten the UK's legal system, be read first. It is available in pdf from this link to Open Europe research. The Daily Telegraph's David Rennie blog from Brussels had some fascinating exchanges last summer which may be read by clicking here. I quote below part of a contrbution by Torquil Dick-Erikson from 29th June 2006 .. because criminal justice is not only the department of state affairs for stopping or deterring crime, but also for protecting the freedom of innocent individuals from wrongful or indeed malicious imprisonment. It is the heart, the essence, of statehood. Once the EU has this, it won't really need a constitution since it will control all our lives. John Middleton is right to be terrified. Their legal systems are utterly different from ours. No continental country enjoys our rights of Habeas Corpus or Trial by independent Jury. The EU Commission's plan - Corpus Juris - for a single system for the whole of Europe, is based entirely on their inquisitorial system. Our safeguards will be wrenched away by majority voting. They will also be able to beef up Europol, and we shall see armed, uniformed Europol units patrolling our High Streets (all continental police are always armed). Lindsay Jenkins on the following day made a contribution which included the following statement: I would like to disabuse Chris Sherwood when he says that armed Europol officers in the UK (or anywhere else in the EU) is pie in the sky. Torquil Dick-Erickson has a deep understanding of what is just around the corner. Both the first head of Europol Jorgen Storbeck and the second, another former senior German police officer, have made it clear that Europol will be an executive police service. Another contribution to the debate by Mr Dick-Erikson on 4th July included the following: Make no mistake. Corpus Juris was conceived as a toe in the door, the thin end of a wedge to be hammered into our legal system and knock it apart. Its initial stated purpose is limited to the issue of fraud against EU finances, but this is just an attempt to make it more acceptable to us. At the EU Commission seminar where it was unveiled, the introductory programme listing the planned official speeches for the seminar, drawn up and printed by the EU Commission, said explicitly that "Corpus Juris is conceived as an embryo European criminal code". The final entry from Mr Dick-Erikson was on 9th July and included the following: Habeas Corpus is one of the essential parts of our civilisation. It is absolutely bedrock. You simply do not lock people up with no public hearing and no evidence of guilt being shown. In Britain, this is simply not done. (Or only in times of war or of extreme public emergency.) We have fought wars and world wars through our history to prevent this from happening to us. It is part of the essence of what we mean when we say "it's a free country, isn't it". With the European Arrest Warrant of course we have lost a part of this freedom: we can now be arrested even in Britain, on the orders of a foreign judge, and at once transported abroad, there to linger in jail for many months before we have a public hearing and before any evidence is produced against us. Habeas Corpus still applies now in Britain, but only if one is to be arrested by a British authority, not if one is to be arrested by a continental one. And if we give up the veto on Justice and Home Affairs, the EU will be able to set up its single system of criminal justice (on the continental model) and take away our Habeas Corpus even within Britain. There were later interesting contributions in that debate from Anne Palmer and Stuart Coster, but brevity rquires I quote no more from this string. Parliamentary discussion on the European Arrest Warrant, the Italian means of holding suspects and the consequences of extradition from the UK may be read from here. Pictures of the embryo EU riot police force may be found from their Home Page, linked here; their mission statement alarmingly includes the following: Quote Ømonitoring of and advice for local police in their day-to-day work, including criminal investigation work Unquote