[Gllug] [OT] Technobabble

[Ben Fitzgerald]

On Tue, Nov 15, 2005 at 09:39:04AM +0000, Ben Whyte wrote:
> >
> >That doesn't matter - the key bit is whether they would be able to 
> >charge the person in question beforehand.
> >
> >Since non-disclosure of encryption keys is an offense, they can charge 
> >this hypothetical person with this, and then continue to gather evidence.

Agreed. The time taken to decrypt data has been used heavily in the
media of late to justify holding someone for longer before charging
them, but as you say withholding an encryption key is an offence. Pity
the media has not relayed this!

The stuff below is OT for gllug but I can't resist :-)

> >So far none of the examples I have seen actually justify anything more 
> >than 7 days.  The other much touted example was "that house in leeds 
> >that was full of explosives and they couldn't enter it for more than 
> >14 days since it took that long to make it safe".

> >Hello!  Someone has a house full of bombs and you don't think you can 
> >charge them!?  Scary that the police and the prime minister are so 
> >ignorant of the law really.

I wouldn't say they are ignorant. I wish they were, but I believe they
know this and are using the public's ignorance.

> In that set of circumstances you can charge them, but in most 
> circumstances you need to have evidence which prooves the offence to 
> charge someone.  You are not allowed to charge someone with suspicion of 
> something, you can however arrest them and bail them.  However allowing 
> people who may or may not have terrorist links to wander around on bail 
> why you gather the evidence isnt really a very good idea.

Yes, you do need evidence. If you can't find any after holding,
questioning and searching their property, then release them. That seems
pretty civilised to me.

If you actually have evidence and convince a judge that a person should be
charged with terrorism I do not think your chance of bail are good.

Cheers,

Ben.

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