[lbo-talk] Noticed an oddity

Bill Bartlett billbartlett at aapt.net.au
Mon Mar 24 07:15:55 PDT 2008


At 7:43 AM -0500 24/3/08, Andy F wrote:


> it's shitty, but somehow I find all my adrenaline
>expended on the Chief Justice being openly ok with torturing people,
>and that seeming to pass with much less comment.
>
>I just don't morally multitask well, I guess.

Here's something to cheer you up then. Although it is a bit of a worry that it is considered "extraordinary" for a judge to demand that an accused not be tortured.

Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas

ABC News http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/24/2197271.htm

Judge threatens to bail terrorism suspects

A Victorian Supreme Court judge has warned that he will consider releasing 12 terrorism suspects on bail unless the state's Corrective Services department changes the conditions under which they are being held.

In his extraordinary judgement, Justice Bernard Bongiorno demanded drastic changes to the way the men are being held.

"The accused are currently being subjected to an unfair trial. The removal of the source of unfairness in this trial requires either that the accused's conditions of incarceration be drastically altered, or that they be released on bail," he said.

The men have been held in a maximum security prison over 60 kilometres south-west of Melbourne for more than two years and are held in their cells for up to 23 hours a day.

When court is sitting they are woken up before 6:00am and offered breakfast, before being strip-searched.

Their hands and feet are shackled to their waists as they are loaded into a windowless prison van for a 90-minute trip to Melbourne.

On their return, they are subject to another strip search.

Justice Bongiorno wants the suspects to be transferred to a prison in the city, freed from the shackles and strip searches, and to have at least 10 hours out of their cells when court is not sitting.

He has given Corrections Victoria a week to respond to his request.



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