London, UK, October 31 2007 – The Law Lords today upheld the government’s control orders regime – effectively house imprisonment without charge or trial -allowing it to continue the indefinite punishment of people who have neither been tried nor convicted of an offence.

In response, Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith said "today’s ruling could allow us to impose curfews of up to 16 hours, which I will now consider."

Taji Mustafa a media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain said: "This ruling indicates that Britain has formally adopted a policy that disregards the principle of innocence until proven guilty. It does not allow secret ‘intelligence’ to be challenged in court and therefore means that some residents of the UK can be held without explanation, permitting the government and intelligence officials – utterly discredited in Forest Gate and Iraq – to continue being the judge, jury and jailer of men who have never been tried or found guilty of an offence. The policy is one that successive British governments have appeased in places such as Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, and have quite hypocritically condemned in Burma, Zimbabwe and other dictatorships."

"These laws, called the ‘stuff of nightmares’ by a former Law Lord, are how tyrants across the world further the political interests of the state, justified in the name of security. It should come as no surprise if future British governments use these powers in a similar way."

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