<P> Under Apartheid, the government of South Africa used preventive detention laws to target its political opponents . These included, notably, the Terrorism Act of 1967, which gave police commanders the power to detain terrorists--or people with information about terrorists--without warrant . </P> <P> England and Wales used to have provisions, introduced by the Labour Government in 2003, to deal with dangerous offenders similar to what is used in Canada . However, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 abolished what was called Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) without replacement, although offences committed prior to the coming into force of the 2012 Act may still trigger IPP . </P> <P> In the United States, the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right to "a speedy and public trial". Thus, arrested persons may not be held for extended periods of time without trial . However, since the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA), controversy has broken out as to whether or not the U.S. government now has the power to indefinitely detain citizens . Section 1021 and 1022 of the legislation enacted policies described by The Guardian as allowing indefinite detention "without trial (of) American terrorism suspects arrested on U.S. soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay". </P> <P> Convicted persons can be held indefinitely as a "dangerous offender". </P>

Under the preventive detention act a person can be arrested without trial for