Boris: ‘Guilty Until Proven Innocent’

Aug 27, 2014

Written By Billy Sexton, Editor, AllAboutLaw.co.uk

Boris Johnson has argued that a ‘minor’ change should be made in the presumption of innocence.

The Mayor of London has called for legislation to be changed so that anyone visiting Iraq or Syria would be automatically presumed to be terrorists unless they had notified the authorities in advance. This is in reaction to the murder of journalist James Foley, of which the prime suspect British national from London who is believed to be a member of terrorist group IS (Islamic State).

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Boris argued, “We need to make it crystal clear that you will be arrested if you go out to Syria or Iraq without a good reason. At present the police are finding it very difficult to stop people from simply flying out via Germany, crossing the border, doing their ghastly jihadi tourism, and coming back.

“The law needs a swift and minor change so that there is a ‘rebuttable presumption’ that all those visiting war areas without notifying the authorities have done so for a terrorist purpose.”

Many have criticised Boris’s statement, with Matthew Norman arguing in the Independent that to remove “the absolute, inalienable right to be presumed innocent until proved otherwise” will prove “there is simply no justice at all… in the case if British Muslims who, for whatever reason, have visited war zones.”

The change could arguably violate article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.”

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