Government tries to convince court to approve detention of terrorist suspects

The Attorney General yesterday told a court that "a number" of members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida terror network were among foreign nationals living in Britain.

Lord Goldsmith QC made the claim as part of a government attempt to persuade the Appeal Court that it should have the right to detain foreign nationals indefinitely without trial, in the wake of the 11 September attacks on America.

An earlier court hearing had found that such emergency powers, introduced by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, were "discriminatory and disproportionate".

The Attorney General told three judges, headed by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, that al-Qai'da terror cells were present in Britain when the powers were introduced in December last year.

He said: "It was known that there were a number of foreign nationals in the UK believed to be involved in terrorism with links to al-Qa'ida."

It was unclear whether Lord Goldsmith was referring only to the nine men currently held under the emergency powers in Belmarsh high-security prison, south London, or to others living at large in Britain.

The Government has not previously given details as to why it has held individuals under the special powers. Of the 11 who have been detained, two have been freed on the condition that they voluntarily left Britain.

The Government argues that the emergency detention powers are the best means it has of protecting national security against the threat allegedly posed by individuals who cannot be deported because they are political refugees.

But the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal found in July that the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act breached the European Convention on Human Rights. It had ruled that the power was unlawful because it discriminated on the grounds of national origin.

But the Attorney General argued yesterday that the effect of the tribunal's ruling was to say that if Parliament had gone further and introduced a power of internment over British nationals, then that would have been lawful. "I find myself in the unusual position of representing the Government not trying to defend a measure that a court has said has gone too far but in trying to defend a measure which a court has said did not go far enough," he said.

Lord Goldsmith said the Government wished to keep to a minimum any interference with human rights and for this reason had not introduced a general power of internment.

The Attorney General said that as a close ally of the United States, Britain faced a high risk of terror attack. He referred to comments by an al-Qa'ida spokesman last October, describing the campaign in Afghanistan as a "crusade by the two crusaders, Bush and Blair".