"de-arrested"

Question

On the BBC News website this morning they have a story with the headline "Muslim cleric Hamza de-arrested". The link I followed from the main page for UK news had a little summary with "de-arrested" in quote marks.

Does this word have any legal meaning? Surely you're either released without charge, or arrested on another offence?

Andrew Gwilliam
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Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]On the BBC News website this morning they have a story with the headline "Muslim cleric Hamza de-arrested". The link ... quote marks. Does this word have any legal meaning? Surely you're either released without charge, or arrested on another offence?[/nq]
I deduced that it was because he hadn't actually been released, owing to still being held while extradition proceedings (to the US) are proceeding, or pending, or whatever. It's just that he's no longer under arrest (on suspicion of a UK offence) as well. (As will be obvious, IANAL.)

Katy Jennison
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Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]On the BBC News website this morning they have a story with the headline "Muslim cleric Hamza de-arrested". The link ... quote marks. Does this word have any legal meaning? Surely you're either released without charge, or arrested on another offence?[/nq]
I found that story at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3616524.stm

I wondered if other BBC articles used that word. There were two:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2717913.stm
Four men who were arrested under terrorism laws
during raids in Manchester have been charged with
possessing forged documents.
The men had been held by police in London since last Wednesday, after originally being arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000.
However, on Saturday the Metropolitan Police
de-arrested them under that legislation and
re-arrested them under the Police and Criminal
Evidence Act.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2657657.stm
Tuesday, 14 January, 2003...
Police have released five men detained in
Bournemouth under terror laws and played down any
links with an alleged plot to use the deadly poison ricin...
All six suspects have now been "de-arrested" or
released without charge under the terms of the
Terrorism Act 2000, but have been bailed pending
further inquiries.
So, "de-arresting" appears to be legally defined in the UK legislation, "Terrorism Act 2000." One would hope the text of that is published on the Web.

Best Donna Richoux

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]On the BBC News website this morning they have a story with the headline "Muslim cleric Hamza de-arrested". The link ... quote marks. Does this word have any legal meaning? Surely you're either released without charge, or arrested on another offence?[/nq]
OED has 'de-arrest' as obsolete for 'release from arrest'. Another version, also obsolete, is 'disarrest'.
See my reply to Donna for more.

John Dean
Oxford

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]On the BBC News website this morning they have a story with the headline "Muslim cleric Hamza de-arrested".[/nq]
[nq:1]So, "de-arresting" appears to be legally defined in the UK legislation, "Terrorism Act 2000." One would hope the text of that is published on the Web.[/nq]
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000011.htm
I haven't time to look at the whole thing. A cursory exam of sections that might include the term produces nothing. Google site search produces nothing.
'de-arrest' *is* part of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE).
For an explanation of its use, see eg

http://tinyurl.com/3mz6j"s.25(6) preserves the common law power which permits arrest for breach of the peace.77 Although no offence need have been committed, the person may still be brought before a magistrates? court and be bound over. In Steel v UK78 the applicants had been involved in different demonstrations but in all the cases the police had arrested for breach of the peace. With certain of the demonstrators, the Court found that their conduct had been entirely peaceful but that they had been arrested, detained for seven and later released without charge.

The applicants argued that Article 5(1)(c) requires arrest for an offence and 'breach of the peace' is not an offence nor is the term defined in statute. Although you may be bound over by magistrates to keep the peace, the police also have the option to 'de-arrest' a person if circumstances change. The Court considered the 'quality of the law' in this area and held that the concept of 'breach of the peace' had been clarified with sufficient precision to enable a person to foresee the consequences that a given act may entail."
and
http://www.policereform.gov.uk/bureaucracy/change proposal reports/Defendant Management/Street Bail/page7.html

"The term 'street bail' has traditionally been used to capture the idea of an officer requiring an offender, 'on the street', to surrender to custody at a given time and place in the future. Bailing from a police station or court is common-place, governed by the provisions of the Bail Act 1976 and PACE. On the street, when dealing with a suspect in the immediate aftermath of the commission of an offence, this is more problematic, largely due to the provisions of Section 30 PACE (see above). Either a suspect is under arrest (in which case PACE applies) or they are not, in which case they are free to leave, and cannot be detained while an officer conducts checks as to previous offending history, suitability for bail etc.
An officer is currently able to arrest and then subsequently de-arrest(4), but there are two problems with this. Firstly, the spirit, at least, of this provision is for application where new circumstances come to light showing that the suspect is no longer subject to police investigation or processes. Secondly, as soon as a person is arrested, the officer should be doing their best to get them straight to a police station (s.30 PACE), rather than keeping them at the scene to conduct checks on them, complete paperwork etc."

John Dean
Oxford

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]On the BBC News website this morning they have a ... you're either released without charge, or arrested on another offence?[/nq]
[nq:1]OED has 'de-arrest' as obsolete for 'release from arrest'. Another version, also obsolete, is 'disarrest'. See my reply to Donna for more.[/nq]
Well, it may be obsolete for OED but not for the UK legal system, apparently.
Nell
A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]On the BBC News website this morning they have a story with the headline "Muslim cleric Hamza de-arrested". The link ... quote marks. Does this word have any legal meaning? Surely you're either released without charge, or arrested on another offence?[/nq]
I've never heard the word used, but technically, in California, at least
849.5. In any case in which a person is arrested and released andno accusatory pleading is filed charging him with an offense, any record of arrest of the person shall include a record of release. Thereafter, the arrest shall not be deemed an arrest, but a detention only.
So in addition to being released, you all of a sudden were not arrested in the first place, but merely "detained". Your arrest has been downgraded, as it were. The legal import, I'd suspect, is that if anybody asks you "Have you ever been arrested?", you can truthfully say "no".

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Usenet · Answer

John Dean:
[nq:1]OED has 'de-arrest' as obsolete for 'release from arrest'. Another version, also obsolete, is 'disarrest'.[/nq]
I don't have time now to do any research, but I've seen "unarrest" used this way in a US context. "I arrested him, then I unarrested him, then I saw the weapon and I rearrested him", the cop might say.
Mark Brader, Toronto "Suspicion breeds confidence." (Email Removed) BRAZIL

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]On the BBC News website this morning they have a story with the headline "Muslim cleric Hamza de-arrested". The link ... quote marks. Does this word have any legal meaning? Surely you're either released without charge, or arrested on another offence?[/nq]
OED labels both "de-arrest" and "disarrest" as obsolete.

(OED2)
?de-a"rrest, v. (de- II. 1.)
To release from arrest; = disarrest.
1791 J. Bree Cursory Sketch 231 A ship dearrested or released byorder of Council.
?disa"rrest, v. (ad. OF. desarrester to release from arrest (14th c. in Godef.), f. des-, dis- 4 + arrester to arrest.)
trans. To set free from arrest; to reverse the arrest of.
1528 Hacket Let. to Wolsey (MS. Cott. Galba B. ix. 54b), That scheschowld cawse to dysarest the forsayd Korn.

1643 Prynne Doom Coward. 9 The King .. wills that he shall bedisarrested, and suffered to goe at large.

"de-arrested"

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