Should suspects be held for 90 days?

YES

I SHALL be disappointed if the Government is forced to water down its plans for the detention of suspected terrorists for 90 days. But am I alone in believing that 90 days’ detention is nowhere near long enough? Anyone even remotely suspected of involvement in terrorism should be detained for as long as it takes to secure a conviction. When the safety of our country is under threat, no consideration of ‘rights’ can be allowed to intrude.

RICHARD PEARSON, Corfe Castle, Dorset. HOW liberal can you get when dealing with suspect terrorists and their detention? Are we willing to see more of our citizens blown apart, through the premature release of a fanatical bomber? These are exceptional circumstances. We should accept the advice of senior police officers, who have to act on reliable sources of intelligence and carry out thorough investigations.

PETER G. RACKLIFF, Newport Pagnell, Bucks.

NO

THE South African apartheid government introduced a ‘90-day detention without trial’ law and used it effectively in the Seventies and Eighties to lock up opponents. We have already seen how current so-called ‘antiterror’ laws have been used against people who dared to heckle members of Blair’s government. Who knows what would happen if this Act were to become law? Democracy would be the main loser.

GRANT BARTON, address supplied. WHO says another 90 days would not commence one day after the first 90 ended? If more than the existing 14 days are needed, let the authorities apply for each extension week by week to a judge.

KEITH PEAT, Sutton-on-Sea, Lincs. IS THE ‘compelling case’ for 90 days detention as compelling as the evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

TED FISHER, Milton Keynes, Bucks.