Synod rejects Government proposals to extend detention without charge

Members of the Church of England General Synod voted overwhelmingly against Government proposals to extend the maximum period that suspected terrorists can be detained without charge by police.

A motion put forward by the convenor of Anglican Mainstream, Dr Philip Giddings, expressed "grave concern" that extending the current 28-day maximum period would "disturb" the balance between the liberty of the individual and the needs of national security "unacceptably".

The motion went on to "deplore" the continued holding of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay without charge of due process and urged the Government to use all available means to press the US to close the facility and "restore the full application of the rule of law".

In his address to Synod, Dr Giddings pointed to the "essential dignity of human beings, created in the image of God, human beings whom God loves and for whom Christ died".

"However disfigured by sin, human beings bear the divine image that must always be at the forefront of our minds when we consider state-imposed penalties and restrictions of liberty," he said in the final debate of this week's General Synod.

In the last five years, the Government has extended the maximum period of detention without charge fourfold from seven to 28 days and is now proposing to increase it to 42 days.

Dr Giddings rejected the proposals, saying that the 28-day limit had proved "sufficient".

"Four weeks is already a considerable disruption of the life of an innocent person, and his family; six weeks would be even more oppressive," he argued, adding that safeguards would be "flimsy".

Guantanamo Bay, he continued, had been an "affront to legal principle and human dignity".

The risk of another terrorist soil could not justify further chips into the liberty of UK citizens, he said.

"As Christians our realism about human nature should keep us vigilant towards demands to sacrifice liberty on the basis of unexamined or exaggerated fears," he said.

The motion was carried by 235 votes to two.