Students condemn use of anti-terror police to spy on protests

London, Jan 19, IRNA – Students have expressed alarm that anti-terrorism police from Scotland Yard this week asked 20 London colleges for information about potential protesters.

President of University of London Union, Clare Solomon said there were “increasingly shocking claims that police officers are maliciously targeting protesters, by withholding evidence and perverting the course of justice.”

“The news that anti-terrorist police are tracking student protesters shows that when it comes to protest, the police are out of control,' Solomon said in a statement obtained by IRNA.

In an email dated January 13, an officer from Counter Terrorism Command was reported to have asked collage authorities to work with anti-terror police to limit student occupations on their campuses.

Students are planning further protests against government plans to treble university fees up to £9,000 a year and cut education grants after staging sit-ins at dozens of universities and mass national demonstrations in London towards the end of last year.

Solomon referred to the recent exposure of former police officer Mark Kennedy as a double agent by posing as an activist to spy on environmentalist movements.

'Mark Kennedy seems to be the tip of the iceberg. Encouraging universities and schools to pass on the names and detailsof suspected protesters is reminiscent of the most authoritarian governments in history,” she said.

“Certainly (it) is not an act which should be tolerated in our society. The police are either unwilling or unable to distinguish between terrorism and protest.'

Allegations that the police are acting politically and anti-democratically have led to various public figures, including Green MP Caroline Lucas, to call for a public enquiry./end