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August 29, 2006

Australia: "Jihad Jack" Placed Under Control Order

We reported on August 18 that former Melbourne taxi driver Joseph Thomas, or "Jihad Jack" (pictured left) had been released from prison, after charges for which he had been convicted on February 26 were quashed. Thomas had been accused of receiving money from Al Qaeda, He had confessed during detention in Pakistan that he had been given US $3,500 (Aus $4,750) by one Khaled bin Attash, an Al Qaeda operative belived to have been involved in planning the attack against USS Cole in Aden in 2000.

Thomas had been detained in Pakistan, and according to him, he had been threatened with violence by a US interrogator, and subjected to physical abuse by a Pakistani interrogator. He had been detained in January 2003, but it was not until March of that year that members of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had interviewed him. The confessions he had made to the AFP formed the bulk of the evidence with which he had been convicted.

However, on August 18, appeal justices Chris Maxwell, Frank Vincent and Peter Buchanan at the Victoria Court of Appeal ruled that Thomas' confessions had been made while he was under duress. The first man to be convicted under Australia's new terror laws, the decision of the judges was considered a blow in the fight against terrorism.

Prosecutors suggested that they would appeal against the ruling, and requested that an interview made by Jihad Jack for ABC with reporter Sally Neighbour should be submitted as evidence before the court. In this TV interview for the Four Corners program, given in February of this year, Jihad Jack freely confesses to the charges on which he was ultimately convicted and then acquitted. The Court of Appeal are still considering this request.

Today, Jihad Jack has made the headlines again, as he has now become the first person to become subject to a control order, limiting his activities and associations. Control orders were among the new measures brought in in Premier Howard's new raft of anti-terror legislation.

The news is reported by the Australian, the Melbourne Age and the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph.

The control order was issued by the AFP yesterday, and required that Jihad Jack return immediately from a vacation he was taking. The control order was authorised at the Federal Magistrates Court in Canberra on Sunday, following a request from Philip Ruddock, the Attorney General.

The order was presented to Thomas as he holidayed on a beach with his Indonesian-born wife Maryati and his children. His brother Les was outraged, saying: "He was slapped with a court order and told to get back to Melbourne immediately. We didn't expect them to stoop this low. Anyone who cares about civil liberties should be outraged."

Joseph Thomas must be in his home on a curfew between midnight and 5 am every day. He must report to police three times a week, and is forbidden from leaving Australia. He is also forbidden to use some internet service providers, and is restricted to only certain phone companies' services. Rob Stary, Thomas' lawyer, said he would appeal the control order in court later this week. He said he first became aware of the control order after it had been served on his client.

Philip Ruddock would not discuss the control order before it had been passed by the courts, but said: "When you're seeking to protect the Australian community, the system of control orders replicates that that has been put in place in the UK."

Unfortunately for people in Britain, Mr Justice Sullivan, a UK judge has ruled that control orders as they had been enforced in Britain contradicted the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lex Lasry, another lawyer who defended Thomas in the original trial and the appeal said that Philip Ruddock had "maligned and vilified" Jihad Jack, by publicly talking about the details of the control order after it had come into force.

Speaking to ABC radio, Lasry said: "What I am concerned about is the willingness of the attorney-general to convene a press conference in which he effectively maligns Mr Thomas while there are now two matters before the courts. It seems to me that's totally inappropriate."

"The overwhelming message from that and this morning's newspapers is that Mr Thomas is someone from whom the Australian community needs to be protected.....It's an obvious thing to say that it's most unfair in the way he is now being vilified, in a sense at the hands of the Attorney-General."

There are also fears that as his wife Maryati is an associate of Abu Bakar Bashir, who is spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the group which caused the bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on September 9, 2004, and as Jemaah Islamiyah also killed 202 tourists, including 88 Australians on Bali in October 2002, that Thomas could be in contact with the Indonesia-based terror group.

Thomas is also, according to the conditions of the control order, forbidden from contacting Osama bin Laden, whom he met while in Afghanistan in 2001.

The AFP had argued in court that Thomas was "vulnerable" and "attractive to aspirant extremists who will seek out his skills and experiences to guide them in achieving their potentially extremist objectives."

"There are good reasons to believe that, given Mr Thomas has received training with al-Qa'ida, he is now an available resource that can be tapped into to commit terrorist acts on behalf of al-Qa'ida or related terrorist cells. Training has provided Mr Thomas with the capability to execute or assist with the execution directly or indirectly of any terrorist acts. Mr Thomas also admitted that while at the al-Qa'ida training camp he undertook weapons training, including the use of explosives, and learned how to assemble and shoot various automatic weapons."

"Mr Thomas is vulnerable. Mr Thomas may be susceptible to the views and beliefs of persons who will nurture him during his reintegration into the community," the police summary stated.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at August 29, 2006 12:46 AM

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