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Cleric loses appeal over dead soldier hate mail in Australia
 A Muslim cleric charged with sending offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers has lost his bid to have the charges dropped. Man Monis, also known as Sheikh Haron, is charged with 12 counts of using the postal service in an offensive way. The charges relate to letters and CDs he allegedly sent to the wives and parents of Australian soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan.Monis was seeking to have the indictments thrown out in the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal on the grounds they were unconstitutional. Lawyers representing Monis had argued the charges were an infringement of their client's implied freedom of political communication. They claimed the letters concerned political affairs and Australia's foreign policy. But a three-judge panel today rejected that argument. The judges said that while the letters were critical of Australian military involvement in Afghanistan, they also referred to the fallen soldiers in a denigrating and derogatory fashion. The case is now due to return to a district court. Posted by: ryuge 2011-12-06 |
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