The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 27 February 2014

issue 01 March 2014

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Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee who won substantial compensation after suing the British government, was arrested in Birmingham on suspicion of terrorism offences relating to Syria. John Downey, accused of killing four soldiers in the IRA Hyde Park bombing in 1982, will not be prosecuted, because he was given, in error, a guarantee he would not face trial; an Old Bailey judge ruled it was in the public interest to make state officials keep their promises. Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the opposition, said she had ‘regrets’ that the Paedophile Information Exchange continued to be affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties during her time as its legal officer from 1978 to 1982; she said that the Daily Mail, which had criticised her, Jack Dromey her husband, and Patricia Hewitt, was making a politically motivated smear. Dave Lee Travis, the former disc jockey, found innocent on 12 charges of indecent assault, is to face a retrial on two other charges.

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