guilty until proven innocent

[Eugen Leitl]

I've lost hope for U.K. 

Losing hope for the rest of us in the EU. See you at the showers & delousing. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dna-records-of-innocent-to-be-kept-1680388.html 

DNA records of innocent to be kept

By Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor

Thursday, 7 May 2009

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is accused today of undermining the principle
of "innocent until proven guilty" by insisting on keeping DNA records of
people cleared of crime.

Plans for a modified national database outlined by the Government today would
allow the police to retain records of thousands of innocent people for up to
six years. In cases of serious violent or sexual crime, the time limit would
be extended to 12 years.

Civil liberties campaigners say they will fight the Government in court over
the plans. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "This well-spun
proposal proves that the Home Secretary has yet to learn about the
presumption of innocence and value of personal privacy in Britain. Wholly
innocent people, including children, will have their most intimate details
stockpiled for years on a database that will remain massively out of step
with the rest of the world. With regret we shall be forced to see her in
court once more."

The shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: "The Government just doesn't
get this. People in Britain should be innocent until proven guilty. Ministers
are just trying to get away with as little as they possibly can instead of
taking real action to remove innocent people from the DNA database. It's just
not good enough."

Current rules, under which everyone arrested has their genetic fingerprint
stored indefinitely, were ruled unlawful by the European Court of Human
Rights last year. Judges in Strasbourg said the policy of retaining all
suspects' data was "blanket and indiscriminate". The Government's response,
published today, makes clear criminals convicted of "recordable" offences b
those which can lead to a prison sentence b will stay on the database for
life, as will under-18s who commit sexual or violent crimes. But youngsters
convicted of only one minor offence will be deleted from the database when
they turn 18.

Police will also track down about 30,000 criminals who committed serious sex
or violent crimes before the database was built so their profiles can be
added. All genetic material taken from suspects, such as blood or swab
samples, will be destroyed.

Ms Smith said: "The DNA database plays a vital role in helping us do that and
will help ensure that a great many criminals are behind bars where they
belong. These new proposals will ensure that the right people are on it, as
well as considering where people should come off. We will ensure that the
most serious offenders are added to the database no matter when or where they
were convicted.

"We also know that the database has provided matches for a significant number
of serious crimes as well as providing thousands of matches for less serious
crimes that cause great concern to victims, such as burglary, which is why we
are proposing to keep some profiles for six years."

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Once again,
the Home Office is fighting an undignified rearguard action designed to give
as little as possible in response to the ruling of the European Court of
Human Rights. Today's announcement is nowhere near good enough. Jacqui Smith
must not be allowed to get away with anything short of immediately removing
all innocent people from the database, except those accused of a violent or
sexual offence."