Once again, high profile arrests on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks have resulted in the hapless detainees being released without charge because there is not enough evidence against them.

This time, three men arrested on New Year’s Eve and blasted all over the front pages for allegedly planning to blow up Rotterdam’s Erasmus bridge have been told they will not face criminal proceedings.
In March, a 26-year-old Pakistani student was arrested for being involved in an international terror network. He too was released without charge. In February 2007, three people arrested in connection with a ‘terrorist threat’ at Schiphol airport were released because there was no evidence against them.
And of course, how can we forget the debacle of the Hofstad trial – the so-called terror network centred around the killer of film producer Theo van Gogh. That case ended up in January with all of them found not guilty of membership of a terrorist organisation or planning terrorist attacks – even though the government changed the law on terrorism to make it easier to get convictions.
Perhaps ministers would like to explain why the security services and the public prosecution department keep arresting innocent people, or are they just bad at doing their job?