CAIRO, August 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Britain's proposed secret courts to try terror suspects have drawn fire from British officials and civil rights activists, a leading British newspaper reported Wednesday, August. 10.

Ian Macdonald QC, who resigned last year as a barrister in special terror cases, described the proposed secretive courts as "botched", according to the Guardian.

"If you are going to move to a completely new system of pre-trial investigation along the French lines, we haven't got a corps of judges who can lead a major investigation into crime.

"What it looks like is that it won't, in fact, be anything like the French system, but will, in fact, be a method of extending the detention of suspects for more than two weeks," Macdonald told the paper.

The Guardian revealed Tuesday that Britain was mulling the set up of secret courts to prosecute terror suspects as part of the crackdown following the July 7, terrorist attacks in the capital London.

Lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, said the British government plans to set up special courts with security-cleared judges to hold pre-trial hearings to decide the length of time terror suspects should be held before they were charged or released.

British security services and police have been pressing for extending the detention period of terror suspects to three months without charge, more than the current 14 days.

Lord Falconer claimed that the extension of the detention period was just a "sensible period to detain suspects while sensible investigation is going on".

He maintained that the proposed courts could help with using intelligence material, including phone-tap evidence, in courts without revealing informants or how the information was obtained.

Lord Falconer said that the anti-terror courts will consider whether sensitive intelligence materials would be used in conventional courts.

The civil rights group Liberty said, however, the involvement of judges in the special courts could not "sanitize an unfair process".

"The thought of secret hearings where once again the accused will never hear the case against them fills me with dread," the Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said.

One possible model for the pre-trial hearings could be the Special Immigrations Appeals Tribunal, which sits in secret and keeps the details of charges from those facing them.

Home Office officials said it is unlikely the plans will be ready to be included in planned new anti-terrorism laws due to be debated by Parliament this autumn.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled Friday, August 5, new sweeping anti-terror powers.

The measures include deporting and excluding foreigners who are accused of "condoning and inciting violence" and closing worship places used for "fomenting terrorism".