Schedule 4
Counter-Terrorism Bill
12:00 pm
David Heath (Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 48, in page 75, line 25, at end insert ‘and
(c) the court exercising jurisdiction under that law has not, in respect of the corresponding foreign offence, relied on evidence or information obtained through torture, duress or other means that would render such evidence or information inadmissible in a court in the United Kingdom.’.
The purpose of this amendment is to enable the Minister to give assurances that I hope he will be happy to do in respect of the schedule and conditions for making a notification order concerning an offence that is tried under law enforced in a country other than the United Kingdom. I believe that the spirit of our treaty obligations requires us not to make such an order in respect of an offence that is tried using evidence that would be inadmissible in this country by reason of it being obtained under duress or by torture. I certainly think that that is an obligation in any country with which we have dealings and under this provision within the Council of Europe or the European Union, but I would like an assurance that that will be the case in any jurisdiction. I do not want people who have been tortured, for example, in Uzbekistan, and found guilty of an offence using the evidence obtained by torture to find themselves subject to further penalties, even of this kind, in this country as a consequence.