Doherty welcomes 'Stop and Search' ruling
Published: 5 July, 2010
Sinn Féin West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty has welcomed this week's decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to reject the British government's final appeal over the use of Stop and Search powers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and he has called for their immediate suspension.
Sinn Fein has repeatedly criticized the PSNI for the use and abuse of these powers and Pat Doherty has now called for the immediate scrapping of these powers saying:
"I firstly welcome the decision taken by the ECHR to reject the British Government's final appeal against this ruling. In January of this year, the ECHR ruled that Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which gave police the power to stop and search people, without prior suspicion, violated Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights, which covers the right to respect for private life.
"These illegal powers have been abused by the PSNI for far too long and their use needs to be permanently suspended with immediate effect. In the first three months of this year alone, over 8,000 people in the north were subject to an illegal Stop and Search, and this is extremely worrying for any of us that are concerned with the protection of human and civil rights.
"There is sufficient alternative legislation in place for the PSNI to search people that they suspect may be carrying out an offence, but to give any police force the right to arbitrarily stop and search people, is to give them a 'carte blanche' to abuse these powers, and I have concerns about this having happened in many Nationalist areas since the introduction of this legislation.
"The fact that the British Government plan to ignore this ruling until they come up with an alternative is very worrying. I will be writing to the Justice Minister and to the Chief Constable to outline my concerns and insist that these powers are immediately put beyond use. The continued use of these illegal powers would have a very damaging effect on community confidence with the PSNI and by looking at the statistics, it is very ineffective as a method of apprehending those breaking the law."
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