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| Down Under |
| Australia urged to establish Judge-only terrorism court |
| 2006-06-19 |
| AUSTRALIA has been urged to establish an exclusive terrorism court similar to the Northern Ireland judicial system to avoid disclosing potentially sensitive security information to juries. As Sydney architect Faheem Lodhi yesterday became the first person to be convicted by a jury of planning a terrorist attack in Australia, one of the world's foremost counter-terrorism experts, John Stevens, called for terrorism cases to be heard by a judge alone. Terror trial: Lodhi set for life sentence The former head of the London Metropolitan police has joined Australia's top policeman, Mick Keelty, in arguing for a change to the justice system. Lord Stevens and Mr Keelty discussed the issue in Sydney last week while the jury was deliberating on the terrorism charges against Lodhi. Lord Stevens, who is considered one of London's most successful police commissioners, said a successful precedent had been set in Northern Ireland where judge-only courts were used to run cases against accused IRA terrorists. Lord Stevens said one of the major issues in conducting terrorism trials was the question of how much information should and could be disclosed to a jury. "There is some information that should never see the light of day," he said. "They (the judges) are going to be guarding the information and ensuring that it remains confidential." A jury took more than a week to find Faheem Lodhi guilty of three terrorism-related offences under Australia's national terrorism laws. His conviction is the most serious so far under Australia's federal anti-terror laws. It follows a series of terrorism trials around the country that have delivered mixed results. In 2004, Jack Roche, 50, a Muslim convert, became the first person to be convicted of an offence under counter-terrorism laws introduced in 2002. The Perth man was sentenced to nine years' jail after pleading guilty to conspiring to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra. But a New South Wales Supreme Court jury acquitted Zeky Mallah, 21, of terrorism charges after he was accused of preparing to launch a suicide attack on the Sydney office of either ASIO or the Department of Foreign Affairs. Mallah pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening to kill a commonwealth officer. He became the first person to be acquitted under Australia's anti-terror legislation. "Jihad" Jack Thomas, the Melbourne man whom Osama bin Laden is said to have wanted as an al-Qa'ida sleeper agent in Australia, was also acquitted by a jury of terrorism charges. But he was sentenced to five years' jail for receiving funds from a terrorist organisation. The push for exclusive terrorist trials could bring Australia closer to the French legal system, where cases are determined through judicial interrogation. Greg Pemberton from the Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism at Macquarie University, said terrorism charges should be dealt with in the normal way "so they are not under the influence of the politics of the time". |
| Posted by:Oztralian |