Official figures show there was a dramatic rise in offences under the Terrorism Act, peaking just before the Games in London
There was a surge in terrorism arrests last year in the runup to the Olympics, Home Office figures have confirmed.
The latest official statistics show that 245 people were arrested under counter-terrorism legislation in the 12 months to September 2012 – a 60% increase compared to 153 over the same period 12 months before.
And in the three months immediately before the Olympics, the number of terrorism arrests nearly doubled from 37 between April to June 2011, to 64 in April to June 2012.
The Home Office said that of the 245 people arrested, only 45 were charged with a terrorism-related offence and 25 of those who were arrested are still awaiting trial.
The detailed breakdown of the figures show that a further 49 people of the 245 who were arrested were charged with non-terrorist offences, with 101 released without charge. A further 50 were dealt with by "alternative action" which usually means immigration removal.
The latest figures also show that there are 134 prisoners classified as terrorists or as domestic extremists in jails across Britain.
They included 107 people who have been imprisoned in relation to al-Qaida related terrorist activity and a further 26 classified as domestic extremists or separatists. One prisoner is classified as an "historic case" as his conviction pre-dates the current counter-terrorism legislation coming into force in 2001.
Thirty-three terrorist prisoners were released in the past year, including two who had been sentenced to life terms and 14 who were serving sentences of four years or more.
The figures also confirm that the police have largely abandoned the use of stop-and-search powers under the counter-terror laws. The 720 people stopped and searched by the Metropolitan police under section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is 40% down on the previous year.
But this compares with the 256,000 who were stopped under counter-terror search powers five years ago before their use was severely restricted by the European court of human rights, on the grounds they were arbitrary and disproportionate.
The ethnic breakdown for the 720 stop and searches that were carried out last year show that 287 were white, 243 were Asian or Asian British and 80 were black or black British.
The Home Office said that a total of 2,291 arrests have been made for terrorism-related offences since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/21/terrorism-arrests-rose-buildup-olympics
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