By IRNA,
London : British police carried out more than a quarter of a million stop and searches under the country’s terrorism laws last year, according to provisional figures.
The provisional data released by Crime and Policing Minister David Hanson show that the number of stop and search carried out under emergency powers rose to 256,026 in 2008/09, compared to 188,297 in the previous 12 months.
The increase of more than a third was due to a massive rise in the number carried out by London’s Metropolitan Police, which soared by over 80,000 to 185,086, more than offsetting reductions of some 10,000 by police forces elsewhere in the UK.
The figures, which are due to be officially published in April, comes after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in January that Britain’s terrorism laws to stop and search people without grounds for suspicion are illegal.
The Strasbourg court said that the emergency powers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 violated article eight of the European convention on human rights, regarding the right to privacy.
The powers have been widely criticised for disproportionately targeting Muslims and for being counter-productive, leading to few arrests.
Official figures show that a total of 201 people in the UK were arrested on suspicion of terrorism in the year to September 11 2009 and that only 17 led to charges under terror laws, although another 49 were charged with other offences, including seven said to be terrorism-related.