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Australia's Guantanamo

Jane Nethercote | 01.08.2006 22:54 | Analysis | Repression | Social Struggles | World

Have the 13 Muslim men arrested under Australia's new anti-terror laws been subjected to Guantanamo Bay-style conditions? It's an allegation being made by Civil Rights Defence

Barwon Prison
Barwon Prison


Have the 13 Muslim men arrested under Australia's new anti-terror laws been subjected to Guantanamo Bay-style conditions? It's an allegation being made by Civil Rights Defence  http://www.civilrightsdefence.org/?cat=1

Journalist and Larvatus Prodeo blogger, Katherine Wilson, decided to go and check out the allegations for herself (for the story in full, click here  http://larvatusprodeo.net/2006/07/30/guantanamo-in-australia/

After all, she says, "it's always tempting to suspect these sorts of complaints are cooked up to secure a sympathy vote".

On the face of it, the allegation seems "pretty overblown", writes Wilson, "so in April, I joined a group of people for a trip to Victoria's Barwon Prison, near Geelong, to learn more. We met some women who'd come to support their husbands and sons: the same men facing trial now. I was pretty concerned by what these women claimed." She continues:

There was a limit to what they could say, because provisions in the new terror laws limit free speech. They were evidently nervous about saying much. But they did claim their sons and husbands are kept in Barwon's maximum security Acacia unit, in isolation for up to 18 hours a day, shackled. The men allegedly see no natural light. The women claimed the men are given no basic needs (such as a prayer mat). They are allegedly given their 3 daily meals within a 6-hour period, and go to bed “very hungry”.

One wife, Eman Abdou, said the men had their cells raided by 11 officers and two dogs, and were brought out in the early morning to be strip-searched in cold cells, with arms shackled to their waist and feet to go to court. It was claimed the men are put into noisy, over-airconditioned vans to be transported to court in uncomfortable positions (more than an hour travel), and by the time they arrive they are shivering and addled.

Abdou said she's allowed one non-contact (through glass) visit with her husband a week. The men can't hug their children, and most of them have allegedly lost weight and are sick and malnourished.

It was also claimed at the that these men, wearing red suits reminiscent of the fashion at Guantanamo, must participate in other Guantanamo-style conventions.

The allegations, if correct, are pretty troubling, particularly the claim that the men are in isolation for 18 hours a day and shackled. We contacted Corrections Victoria for their response to the list of allegations. A spokesperson came back with this one liner: "Conditions are tough but humane, with the prisoners able to engage in religious observance."

Not particularly enlightening, although the statement is most telling for what it doesn't say – it denies none of the allegations. And it raises some questions. Are other prisoners at Barwon subjected to the same "tough but humane treatment" doled out to suspected terrorists? And given that the men haven't yet been tried (hearings begin this week), shouldn't they be given a higher standard of care rather than a lesser one?

Their rights with regard to detainment should be the same as for other prisoners, says Peter Kemp, Associate to Sam Hegney Solicitors – "treatment in a prison has nothing to do with sentencing nor the alleged crime". However, with the authorities, "including State governments, hell bent on proving to constituents how tough they are on terrorism, you can be sure that corners are being cut." The problem, he says, "is that such alleged abuses are terribly hard to prove".

Related:

Scapegoat List:

Major Michael Mori writes re David Hicks

The US Supreme Court has ruled the special Guantanamo trials illegal. An acceptable solution from the Americans is likely years away and our Government has run out of excuses not to act. Nearly 40,000 Australians have put their name to the Open Letter calling for David Hicks to be repatriated. I hope you'll join us now by clicking on the link:

 http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/DefendAustralianRights

International Protest Day calls for the end of Guantánamo Bay

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/17099

Judges weigh 'Joseph Thomas's' appeal! Get your facts right!

What would she have imposed for stealing a passport?

 http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/843328.shtml

Joseph Thomas conviction immoral

AN EMBARRASSING conviction based on TORTURE IMMORAL

 http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/117441.php

Standardising terrorism in the prison population?

Try giving us hope, access to our communities, a sense of caring by the outside community. And letting us out to make restitution instead of building festering anger.

 http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/117580.php

Scapegoats accused 'exploited' by guberment prostitutor

The rest of the prisoners had to stay in jail in AA maximum security segregted with no contact with human people in a box within a box with no fresh air or sunlight with the worst of the worst offenders.

 http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/117553.php

Jury indicated it could not reach a verdict, but was ordered to push on?

These charges were that he collected maps of the Australian electricity supply system in preparation of a terrorist act (15 years), BUT WITH NO DETAILS ABOUT THE PREPARATION ACCEPT MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THOUGHT CRIME? that he sought information on chemical prices for the use of explosives for a terrorist act (life), BUT NO SOUND EVIDENCE ABOUT WHETHER THE CHEMICALS WERE GOING TO BE PURCHASED OR USED FOR THE USE OF EXPLOSIVES OR A TERRORIST ACT and that he possessed a document with information on the manufacture of poisons and bombs in preparation for a terrorist act (15 years). THAT HE LIKE MANY OTHERS MAY HAVE DOWNLOADED FROM THE INTERNET WHICH IS NOT ILLEGAL USUALLY?

 http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/115129.php

A dangerous precedent: Australian man convicted of “preparing terrorism”

Since 2001, the government has seized upon the “war” declared by US President George Bush for both domestic and international purposes. Under the guise of combating terrorism it has participated in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, diverted attention from mounting economic and social problems at home and legitimised previously unthinkable police state-style measures, including semi-secret trials, “preventative” detention and the ability to impose life sentences without any evidence of an actual terrorist act.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/16401

Secret evidence used in Australian “terrorist” trial

Lodhi was bundled into the court building in shackles, in full view of the media. The display was intended to convey the impression that he is a violent and highly dangerous individual. Like several other Muslim men charged with terrorist offences in Australia over the past year, Lodhi has been denied bail and held in virtual solitary confinement in a “super max” prison, cut off from family and friends. Under state and federal “counter-terrorism” laws, the traditional presumption in favour of bail has been scrapped. It will only be granted in “exceptional circumstances”. On receiving a confidential affidavit from the Commonwealth, Magistrate Michael Price imposed a number of secrecy orders despite vigorous objections by lawyers for Lodhi and by media organisations. The orders mean that the affidavit itself will remain suppressed, and the media is barred from disclosing even the general nature of the material relied upon in it.

 http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/866066.shtml

Merry Christmas Mr Kent and Mr Haddara

After and ASIO fishing expedition they were charged last month with knowingly belonging to a Melbourne-based terrorist group, that did not exist.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9799

ASIO raid family home

This is an assault on civil liberties, for all Australians - on the eve of Human Rights Day 2005 that marks the day in 1948, that the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Shame hoWARd shame on you!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9706

Tight security impedes scapegoat case

Indymedia has learnt this includes a bank account his supporters say was set up to fund legal representation for Muslims facing any kind of legal action. The prosecution is understood to allege the money was intended for terrorist purposes.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9693

Some evidence is prejudicial to national insecurity

It has been previously reported that he is facing nine charges and is accused of planning a major terrorist attack on Sydney defence sites and the electricity grid using downloads off the internet and having 100 rolls of toilet paper to wipe his arse after low level bombs and farts. Shit!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9682

Terrorism suspects' custody conditions 'inhumane'

"This treatment is very cruel and inhumane and what I've put forward to the Premier Morris Iemma to intervene and put an end to this scandal," he said.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9657

DPP should lose the plot!

Now why would the DPP do that? Based on some notion I suppose, that john hoWARd (the hangman) wants to use Thomas's butt again, to raise the fear stakes in the introduction of the new Anti-Liberty-Dissent Directives!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9617

Things and places identified

He said Mulahalilovic worked as a handyman, lived with his wife, parents and brother and, with the help of family members, could provide around $1 million security to ensure his freedom until trial.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9423

Dangerous handyman terror threat?

But the only mother of SATAN here is John HoWARd and his new Ant-Terrorism Bill!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9418

Terror suspects 'kept in dark'

"They're all kept in solitary confinement, they're kept in Guantanamo Bay style conditions and they're very oppressive," he said.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9413

What are the dangerous chemicals police found when they went fishing?

If police say they were making bombs when they were painting motor vehicles then the only terrorist act that wasn't prevented was when police went on a fishing expedition.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9395

Man shot by police in fishing raids

But there is no such thing as an independent investigation team in NSW because police investigate themselves and cannot be relied upon ever.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9392

ASIO fishing expedition makes arrests

Are you satisfied truthseeker? Well I'm not this is just another public relations exercise that no one can prove. But trust us we know best?

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/9384

hoWARd, ruddock, ellison, keelty and news ltd plotted chaos

Now they go on in the article to describe themselves as intelligence officials? But I'm sorry to say that any group of people who ask another group of people to believe what they believe based on no evidence is amongst the most unintelligent and lost group of people the world has ever known.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/8663

Houses raided over 'possible' political attack plans?

"Furthermore, nothing is reasonable about a raid on people's homes because for an alleged possibility. For those sorts of enquiries one should approach a 'soothsayer' and if you get the all clear only then should they approach people via the front door with the appropriate warrant to search one's home. A warrant based on concrete evidence that has been filtered by a juge or magistrate of the court to see whether the material is frivolous or vexatious."

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/8659

If he'd been given his passport he'd be a free man

During his trial Mr Mallah's defence counsel said he was only trying to sustain the media spotlight when he sold details of his plans to an undercover officer posing as a journalist.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/8192

Melbourne man charged over ASIO links

Apparently this victim will appear before the Melbourne Magistrates Court later today and hopefully he won't be sent to the nearest "AA" Super-max prison for "social isolation" just in case ASIO aren't telling us the truth!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7545/index.php

Australian prisoners' linked to Bin Laden: Ten News

Hatzistergos: "For example, because of a perceived risk that they may engage in, or incite other persons to engage in, terrorist activities."

Terrorist prisoners held in a "box within a box" with no "fresh air or sunlight" at Goulburn HRMU may incite alleged terrorists in Long Bay to blow up Long Bay Prison's Twin Towers?

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/liverpool/2004/11/300344.html

Andrew Sullivan and the Tortued Truth

Mr. Habib said he was taken to a room with hooks on the wall and a barrel, set sideways like a roller, on the floor. His arms were stretched out, he said, and each wrist was handcuffed and fastened to a hook on the wall. By his description, the only way not to be left hanging was to stand on the barrel; an electric wire ran through it. Mr. Habib said he believed the interrogators in that room were Pakistani.

Mr. Habib said that when he refused to confess to being part of a 1995 terror plot, one man turned on the current. He lifted his feet to avoid the shock, he recalled, and he was suspended from the wall.

"I lost everything," he said.

 http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/theres_been_a_s.html

Corrective Services: Two sides of the coin

During all of this year I never imagined that my freedom of choice to become closely involved in David’s rehabilitation process would cause so much suffering to me and my family and David’s well being while incarcerated. When I started to experience such horrific problems I was constantly treated as another member from the prison community (inmate). There was no respect or any consideration given as an individual of the community I was seen and treated as an inmate all of those years.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/18131

Teen dies in Sydney jail

A 19-year-old man has died in custody at Sydney's Long Bay jail.

 http://sydney.indymedia.org/node/37986

Out of sight is out of mind

Australia’s treatment of prisoners is inconsistent with international human rights standards according to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations. The Committee considered a complaint by Mr Corey Brough, a prisoner in the NSW corrections system. He was only 16 when the events that the complaint was based on took place. Corey is Indigenous and has a mild intellectual disability. The Australian Government must urgently address the standards of treatment of prisoners in Australian gaols.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/12898

Lawyers question juvenile detention centre laws

"Really if a young person has the capacity to make a decision about medical treatment, then they shouldn't be treated without their consent simply because they're in a juvenile detention centre."

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/17328

NSW Mentally ill prisoners badly treated: coroner

Mr Simpson was kept in solitary confinement for the final 26 months of his life, and the Coroner recommended that solitary confinement or 'segregation' only be used in the Corrections system in exceptional circumstances, and for limited periods of time.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/17489

A.C.T Drug support reduced - crime to increase

The recent decision not to continue funding the drug users support organisation CAHMA shows an A.C.T government intention to fill the proposed prison. This contradicts the position put by the Attorney General, Simon Corbell in a letter dated 2 June 2006 "that funding for alcohol and drug services is generous.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/17412

Prisoner's year in solitary revealed

"It's counter-productive and inhumane."PAR spokeswoman Vickie Douglas said she had seen a teenage inmate after a stint of solitary confinement at Risdon.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/16994

A.C.T petition/schools not jails

A petition has today been distributed to schools, housing and community groups, calling on members of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory to scrap plans to build the Territory's first jail.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/16853

The Sentence: Oz Justice

Bob’s barrister nudged him in the ribs as a signal to stand. The jury had returned with its verdict. Bob anticipated their decision as one would an echo – guilty as charged! The Judge shifted into automatic and delivered the sentence – three years with not less than twelve months to be served for his third offence, possession of marijuana.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/16557

Children (Detention Centres) Amendment Bill 2006

It is important to remember that development of a separate Juvenile Justice system was intended to provide a model that was more focused on rehabilitation than the adult correctional system. As with other recent reforms in the area of juvenile justice this legislation is yet another step towards creating a juvenile justice system that is harsh and dehumanizing.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/14286

Torture UN/OPCAT: 20 ratifications!!

The National Children's and Youth Law Centre, together with Justice Action, are leading a campaign for acknowledgement of the mistreatment of Corey Brough, in the NSW prison system, and further, for systemic reform.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/14126

Con-Census 2006 especially targeting Muslims

"I would expect that we're seeing an increasing proportion of people born overseas so I would expect that that would definitely be a factor," she said.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/18026

Con-Census 2006

Be very alert and alarmed! You can refuse to take part in the upcoming Con-Census. The despotic Howard government is not to be trusted with your personal information. Any informatin you give them can and will be used against you. Like the Australian Nazi Card!

 http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/117843.php

Con-Census 2006 enables you and others to take positive non-violent action.

Find out more at:  http://www.resist.com.au/con-census/

Attorney General Ruddock is Oddball over anti-terrorist laws!Attorney

Attorney General Ruddock attacks different laws.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/17746

Jane Nethercote

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  1. A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER — Prisoners at the HRMU
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