47 per cent of all Section 41 anti-terror arrests were in Derry and Strabane

Forty-nine out of 104 people arrested under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in the north in 2023 were arrested in Derry and Strabane.

That’s 47 per cent of all arrests in the north.

There was a slight year-on-year reduction in arrests in Derry and Strabane from 51 in 2022 to 49 in 2023 in terms of total numbers.

But Derry and Strabane’s percentage share of terror arrests rose from 46 per cent in 2022 to 47 per cent in 2023 because the total number of arrests under the legislation fell from 110 to 104 year-on-year across the north as a whole.

Last year Belfast had the second highest total of TACT2000 arrests with 18 (17%) while Fermanagh and Omagh accounted for 16 (15%).

Nine of the 49 people arrested in Derry and Strabane under Section 41 of TACT2000 were subsequently charged (with any offence) in 2023, compared with one out of 51 in 2022 – an increase of eight subsequent charges year-on-year.

Across the north as a whole 21 people arrested under Section 41 of TACT2000 were subsequently charged (with any offence) in 2023, compared to 13 during the previous 12 months.

Section 41 of the TACT2000 ‘enables police officers to arrest persons whom they reasonably suspect to be a terrorist’.

They people listed as having been charged subsequent to arrest under Section 41 of TACT2000 were not necessarily charged for terror offences.