Section:GDN 1N PaGe:23 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 18:26 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Friday 6 September 2019 The Guardian •
National^23
Ben Quinn
Thirty-three far- rightwing extremists
were held under anti-terror laws last
year, an increase that coincided with
another fall in the number of Islamist
extremists detained.
The fi gure , released by the Home
Offi ce, compares with the 28, 10 and
six people from a suspected far-right
background who were detained in the
previous three years.
By comparison, the number of sus-
pected Islamist extremists being held
peaked in the 12 months to the end of
June 2017, when 185 people believed
to have Islamist extremist ideolo-
gies were in custody in prison and on
remand for a terror-related off ence.
The number dropped to 178 last year,
and 171 in the 12 months to the end of
June this year, according to the fi gures,
which were published yesterday.
The far-right detainees include
individuals from groups such as
National Action, which became the
fi rst extreme rightwing group to be
proscribed as a terrorist organisation
in 2016. Individuals who were found
guilty of membership of National
Action last year included a neo-Nazi
couple who named their baby son after
Hitler and a British army veteran who
served in Afghanistan.
The security minister, Brandon
Lewis, said of the latest fi gures: “These
statistics show just one part of the
breadth of work undertaken by the
government, police, security and intel-
ligence agencies and local authorities
to reduce the terrorist threat.
“From arrests and prosecutions to
safeguarding and early intervention
through our Prevent programme, we
will continue to do what it takes to
keep the public safe.”
However, the comments from
Lewis come as the Home Offi ce con-
tinues to face criticism that it is not
taking the far-right threat seriously
enough. A study by a Whitehall think-
tank of far right fundraising activities
found that an “unwillingness” by the
UK government to engage with the
threat was creating a vacuum in which
such groups can fl ourish.
Overall, there were 266 arrests for
suspected terrorism-related activity
in the last year, down from 354 in the
previous 12 months, in what is a con-
tinuation of a downward trend.
Of those arrested in 2018 -19, nearly
a quarter (23%) were released without
charge – the lowest proportion since
records began after the September 11
attacks in 2001.
British prisons held 218 people for
terrorism-related off ences on 30 June,
according to other Home Offi ce sta-
tistics, a fi gure unchanged since the
previous year. Of those, 78% were cat-
egorised as holding Islamist-extremist
views , 15% were categorised as believ-
ing far-right ideologies. The remainder
held beliefs related to other ideologies.Rise in number
of rightwing
extremists held
under terror laws
Doctors argue religious
belief bars relative from
representing sick girl
Haroon Siddique
An NHS trust has been criticised for
arguing that relatives of a seriously ill
fi ve-year-old girl are incapable of act-
ing in her best interests because of a
religious belief.
The parents of Tafi da Raqeeb, who
suffered a traumatic brain injury
in February and is on a life-support
machine, want to fl y her to Italy for
treatment – against the judg ment of
doctors at the Royal London hospital.
The medics believe it would be in the
child’s best interests for life support
to be withdrawn.
Her fate is due to be determined at
a fi ve-day hearing at the high court in
central London next week. But Bart’s
NHS trust, which runs the hospital,
yesterday applied for one of Tafi da’s
female relatives to be removed as her
“litigation friend”, a child’s represent-
ative in court.
It made its submissions after Tafi -
da’s mother, Shelina Begum, obtained
a fatwa – a ruling on Islamic law – from
the Islamic Council of Europe , which
Lock said: “The logic of the trust ’s
position is thus that anyone who
holds the Islamic faith should, by
virtue of adherence to that faith, be
debarred from being a litigation friend
for Tafi da. Removing the LF [litiga-
tion friend] on the sole ground that
she holds to the tenets of a major reli-
gion and therefore, as a result of her
religious convictions, cannot be antic-
ipated to act in a way that refl ects the
child’s interests is not only highly
off ensive but would also be unlawful.”
Gollop dismissed the idea the trust
was suggesting no Muslim could be a
litigation friend.
The judge, Alistair MacDonald QC,
rejected the trust’s application, mean-
ing the relative, who cannot be named
under reporting restrictions, can act as
Tafi da’s litigation friend next week.
Begum said yesterday that it had
been deeply distressing to have to
leave her daughter’s bedside to attend
the hearing.
Tafi da has been in hospital since
9 February after suff ering an arterio-
venous malformation, a tangle of
blood vessels with abnormal connec-
tions between arteries and veins.
Her parents say she is not brain-
dead and has shown gradual but
encouraging signs of recovery, includ-
ing in her breathing. Doctors at the
Gaslini Children’s hospital in Genoa,
Italy, are willing to treat the “kind,
beautiful and bubbly little girl”.
Acknowledging the emotions
involved , MacDonald urged lawyers
to ensure they “keep the temperature
down” during next week’s hearing.concluded that it would be a “great sin”
and “absolutely impermissible” for the
parents or anyone else to consent to
the removal of life support.
In written submissions, Katie Gol-
lop QC, acting for Bart’s, said: “The
trust submits that particularly in light
of the fatwa, no member of the family
is suitable to act as litigation friend.
“It is not possible for the family to
be open-minded about the fact that
a best interests decision made by the
[high court’s] family division is or may
be in Tafi da’s best interests.”
David Lock QC, acting for Begum
and Tafida’s father, Mohammed
Raqeeb, told the court: “However you
dress it up, that’s an outrageous state-
ment for a public body to make.”
In his own written submissions,▼ Tafi da Raqeeb, fi ve, suff ered a
traumatic brain injury and is on
life support, pending a court ruling
PHOTOGRAPH: FAMILY/PA MEDIA‘In light of the fatwa,
no member of the
family is suitable’Katie Gollop QC
For Bart’s NHS trust15%
The proportion of the 218 in jail over
terror off ences on 30 June who were
considered to hold far-right viewsRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws