TerrorismU.K. bail procedure to be changed to prevent jihadists from leaving country while on bail

Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to oversee a shakeup of police bail procedures after a counterterrorism chief said the procedures were “weak and “toothless” and allowed jihadists to act with impunity.

The Telegraph reports that Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley revealed suspects cannot be prosecuted if they ignore bail conditions while released from questioning, including demands to hand over their passports.

Cameron said he would “look carefully” at the issue, saying the government and police chiefs were already in talks about the problem.

The weaknesses in the current bail system were highlighted by the revelations that Siddhartha Dhar, the Londoner suspected of being Isil’s new ‘Jihadi John’, was able to leave the United Kingdom without any problem while on bail despite being told to surrender his passport.

Rowley, the U.K.’s most senior counterterrorism officer, told MPs that police were powerless to prosecute anyone for breaching the conditions of bail and called for a change in the law to allow that.

He said there are currently more than 100 terrorism suspects on police bail.

Testifying before the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, he said: “Police bail is a weak provision and something we are in discussions with the Home Office about.”

Asked if he wanted it tightening up, he said: “I absolutely would. The only thing that is an offense on police bail is not coming back at the end.

“If the person breaches conditions of a police bail, we can arrest them but cannot prosecute them. It is fairly toothless.”

The committee chairman, Keith Vaz, then raised the bail issue with Cameron at the parliamentary liaison committee.

Cameron said: “I’m very happy to look carefully at that. I knew that Mark Rowley was likely to make remarks like this at your committee because frankly there’s more we need to do here.

“I think in this individual case (Dhar), the passport, it wasn’t on him when he was arrested and he was already at the limit of how long he could be detained under the… powers.

“So the police couldn’t legally hold him while his passport was sought. His home address was searched and had the passport been found it could have been seized. But it wasn’t found.

“The point you’re making — that determining nationality, seizing passports being done more quickly is a very good idea. So I’ll happily look at those powers.”

Cameron also put Internet companies on notice that they will no longer be allowed to use “free speech” arguments as a justification for not removing jihadist videos and messages from Web sites.

Camron said he wants to “make sure” jihadist material is removed from Web sites, comparing it to the campaign he launched against Internet companies to force them to remove images of child abuse.

Dahr was released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences in 2014 and given a week to surrender his passport.

Instead, he packed his belongings and took a coach to Paris with his family the next day. He then traveled to Turkey and crossed into Syria. The police did not realize he had left the United Kingdom until six weeks later.

The Telegraph notes that under current law, the police are powerless to escort a released suspect home to seize their passport because of bail regulations and human rights laws.