London Mayor Boris Johnson has called for authorities to treat Britons who travel to Syria or Iraq under the presumption that they are guilty of terror-related offences.
Writing in his column in the Daily Telegraph, Johnson says that if Britons do not inform authorities of the purpose of their trip, then they should be presumed to be attempting to be joining the Islamic State to commit terrorism, such as the recent beheading of US reporter James Foley.
Whilst Johnson’s comments may reflect much of the public as they see the brutality handed out to innocents by militants of the Islamic state, former attorney general Dominic Grieve said that the proposal undermined UK values.
The presumption of innocence has underpinned the British legal system for decades and helped it develop to be the envy of the world for fairness and justice. Before it all Britons are considered equal and innocent unless the opposite can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Alongside his proposal of a “rebuttal presumption”, Johnson called from stronger monitoring of those returning from “war zones” and suggested that the government could bring back the controversial ‘control orders’ which allowed to place suspects under close supervision.
