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Australia's first terrorism conviction quashed
The first Australian jailed under tough new anti-terrorism laws had his conviction quashed on Friday when an appeal court ruled a police interview given while under arrest in Pakistan was inadmissible, a court official said. Joseph Terrence Thomas was found guilty in April of receiving $3,500 (1,858 pounds) and a plane ticket from senior al Qaeda agent Khaled bin Attash after training with Osama bin Laden's militant network in Afghanistan in 2001. Thomas, a father of three, was jailed for five years and also received a one-year sentence for possessing a false passport. He had faced a maximum 25-year sentence over the funding charge under tough new anti-terrorism laws, introduced not long after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The Victorian state Supreme Court of Appeal quashed Thomas's conviction on Friday, saying his interview with Australian police in Pakistan was inadmissible as it was not voluntary and Thomas had no lawyer present to advise him. "Because of the conditions of his detention by Pakistani authorities, who would not allow him access to a lawyer, Thomas had no such opportunity," the court ruled. "In these circumstances, the court concluded, it was contrary to public policy to admit the evidence obtained in the record of interview," it said. But the court has yet to rule on whether Thomas will be acquitted or face a re-trial. Prosecutors sought a re-trial in which they plan to use evidence given by Thomas in an Australian media interview, a court official told Reuters. More at link Posted by: ryuge 2006-08-18 |
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