Three judges of the Victorian Supreme Court on August 18 quashed the “terrorist” convictions against a young Melbourne worker, Jack Thomas. Their unanimous judgment recorded previously suppressed details of the torture and “emotional manipulation” inflicted on Thomas in order to obtain a blatantly illegal confession.

In early January 2003, Thomas was detained at Karachi airport while trying to return to Australia. The judges noted: “After about 10 minutes, some men, dressed in military uniform and armed with Kalashnikov rifles, arrived and he was taken to a four-wheel drive vehicle; “not handcuffed or shackled, but blindfolded and hooded.” Thomas was driven to a Pakistan military base, where he was interrogated by two Pakistanis and two Americans, who told him, “I was being spoken about in high places but nobody gave me any names.”

Sometime later, he was taken, again blindfolded and hooded, to “some sort of mansion house,” where he was held for about two weeks in a cell that he described as “a dog kennel about the size of a toilet,” with open bars, a concrete floor and a gate that exposed him to the elements. For about three days, he was starved of food and water.

“When he was to be questioned at this location, he would be moved from the cell into the back of the house and up some stairs, shackled and handcuffed. On each such occasion, he was taken to the same room and placed on a low stool, with his feet padlocked to a large metal plate in the floor and with his hands cuffed behind his back.”

The first questioning session lasted from about noon to dusk. “The Pakistanis present commenced to threaten him by saying that they would pour water on him and electrocute him, and that he would be executed... On a number of occasions, the Pakistani officials told him: ‘We’re outside the law. No-one will hear you scream’.”

During the next session, Thomas was assaulted and almost choked to death before he decided to cooperate with the authorities. “What changed my attitude was the short Pakistani officer grabbed my hood by the collar and strangled my hood so that I was suffocating and being strangled with my hood and the heat and the stress was unbearable and I felt they were not going to stop until I screamed out and they released me... I decided I had better start talking, because this was really getting ... I’d gone way past my limit here.”

Canberra’s complicity

At no point was Thomas charged with any offence. After two weeks, he was placed on a light aircraft and flown to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, where he was permitted a consular visit by Alastar Adams who was based at the Australian High Commission. The Howard government had been informed of Thomas’s detention without trial but refused to call for his release.

Even the so-called consular visit was supervised by officers of the Pakistani Intelligence Directorate. Thomas said he did not feel he could ask to speak to Adams alone. Despite this, Adams later testified that Thomas did not appear to have been maltreated and there was no indication of food or water deprivation.

“Four interviews were then conducted between 25 January and 29 January 2003, all, it appears, in the presence of Pakistani and Australian officials, who emphasised to the applicant that his future was dependent upon the extent of his co-operation.”

The transcripts of these interviews indicate that the Pakistani interrogators played a “bad cop” role, while the Australians played the “good cops”.

At one point, a Pakistani interrogator said: “Today you should be more confident, more happy among your own people, right. They’re here to look after you.” Thomas replied: “Okay”. The interrogator said: “But the problem is that they can only look after you once you co-operate with them.” Later, an Australian Federal Police (AFP) officer told Thomas: “About all we can do for you is reflect back to our Pakistani colleagues and to our Government as to whether we consider that you’ve been co-operative or not.”

Following the fourth interview, Thomas was taken Lahore, where he was held for three weeks and interrogated daily by Pakistani officials and an American called “Joe”. Thomas described his living conditions as “disgusting”. “I was kept in a cell smaller than my first one... It was wet, the blankets were rotten, there were mossies everywhere, the meals were the same every day. I couldn’t eat.”

Thomas refused to work undercover for the Americans, telling them he would be killed as a spy, so “Joe” intensified the pressure. “He said I would be sent back over the border into Afghanistan, where the latest technique to extract information was twisting testicles. ‘I love to hear the sound’, he said, ‘when they twist their testicles. They just scream.’ ... I would be bashed and beaten every day... I just got to a stage when I broke down because of what he was saying, especially about my wife and sending agents to Australia to rape my wife.”

Thomas was later returned to Islamabad, where a joint AFP-ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) team conducted further interviews, exploiting the fear instilled by the Pakistani and US authorities. The judges noted: “The applicant was kept in solitary confinement throughout the entire period of his detention. For each of the six interviews, he was brought to the interview location by his Pakistani captors, handcuffed, hooded and shackled. Although these restraints were removed during the interviews, they were replaced before he returned to his cell.”

The judges said the AFP knew that unless it obtained a formal confession, it had no evidence to lay charges against Thomas. “At this stage in the process, there was simply no evidentiary foundation for any charge to be laid against the applicant. That would only be possible if the applicant voluntarily made the necessary admissions, under the requisite interview conditions.”

In the weeks before the formal AFP interview on March 8, 2003, the Australian High Commissioner, the Howard government’s representative in Pakistan, discussed with the Pakistani intelligence service ISI how to make best political use of any “confession” by Thomas to bolster the “war on terror”. These discussions also focussed on dressing up the final interview to make it appear voluntary.

The judges quoted a report by the Australian official Adams, regarding a meeting between the High Commissioner, himself and ISI on February 24, 2003:

“The Paks are in no hurry to charge him while they can bleed him for intelligence. Our own agencies want to get as much as they can also. AFP wish to conduct a criminal interview in which case they have to issue him a warning about whatever he says may be used against him. They would wish to do this at the end of the questioning cycle for obvious reasons... They [ISI] do not appear all that interested in charging him, but rather handing him over to Australia so that we can maximise the drama of punishing home-grown terrorists.”

The formal “confession”

Thomas was given no notice of the recorded AFP interview, which took place in the same room as his earlier AFP-ASIO interrogations. He was taken there hooded, handcuffed and shackled, as before.

Thomas initially protested that he needed legal advice because he faced many years in jail. He told his interrogators: “I mean I can’t spend that time away from my family without having law—you know legal advice, this is ridiculous.”

But he eventually relented in a desperate bid to avoid the even worse option of more torture, followed by indefinite detention. He testified: “I believed it was a crunch—it was like a test for me to return to Australia.” If he failed the test, “I would remain in indefinite detention”.

The judges concluded that Australian officials had been actively engaged in coercing Thomas to record a confession. “Pakistani officials put explicitly to the applicant the possibility, on the one hand, of returning to his family and, on the other, a very different fate... Acquiescence alone would have been sufficient confirmation in the circumstances but the Australian officials went further and, by their remarks, impliedly endorsed what the Pakistanis had said.”

The AFP officers were also guilty of “emotional manipulation”. On two occasions in the course of the joint team interviews, Thomas had been, first, shown a photograph of himself with his wife and daughter and, secondly, given a letter from his wife, and invited to read it.

“Those conducting the [formal] interview were well aware of his earlier, but inadmissible admissions and knew something, at least, of the treatment to which he had been subjected, including the threats made against him and his wife by the American, ‘Joe’.”

Given the High Commissioner’s role and the reference to “high places,” there is every indication that the Australian government sanctioned these abuses. What is indisputable is that, acting on its behalf, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions sought to secure convictions that depended entirely upon the completely unreliable statements that Thomas made in his desperation to stop the beatings, avoid being sent to Guantánamo Bay and be allowed to go home.

In the case of David Hicks, the Australian citizen detained in Guantánamo for nearly five years without trial, the Howard government has been complicit in torture and other violations of international law by the Bush administration. In Jack Thomas’s case, it has gone one step further and sought to rely upon these same criminal methods to secure a conviction in the Australian courts.

 http://wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/tort-a28.shtml

Australian court overturns "terrorist" conviction based on torture
[22 August 2006]

 http://wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/jack-a22.shtml

Australian man jailed on evidence derived from torture
[7 April 2006]

 http://wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/thom-a07.shtml

Australia: terrorism trial of Jack Thomas to rely on coerced evidence
[18 August 2005]

 http://wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/thom-a18.shtml

Pakistan to release Australian Jack Thomas after five months jail without charge
[10 May 2003]

 http://wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/thom-m10.shtml

Australian government backs imprisonment of Melbourne man in Pakistan
[26 February 2003]

 http://wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/thom-f26.shtml

Related:

Jack Thomas served with control order

‘Anyway who cares about civil liberties should be outraged at this decision. We hear about authoritarian governments putting people under house arrest in Burma – well, now it’s happening right here in Australia!’

 http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/08/120670.php

QLD errorism suspect prepares bail application?

Appearing via video link today for a mention, Amundsen regularly spoke over the magistrate, saying he wanted to make another bail application because he now has technical information to prove that the devices in his home were not bombs.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/20627

Lodhi gets 20 years for thought crime?

But what effect of what bombing attack? Thought crime attacks cause no vicitims or I might add no real threat to anyone! More fear has been created by the authorities baseless charges of crimes that were never committed and by the parrot press screaming out terrorist.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/20387

Amendments to proposed anti-terrorism/liberty directives have been dismissed in the Western Australian Parliament.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/20365/index.php

Convicted attention seeker Jack Roche called by afp as informant

A convicted 'attention seeker' Jack Roche now an afp informant has given hearsay evidence at the committal hearing for 13 men facing [alleged] terrorism charges in Melbourne.

 http://sydney.indymedia.org/node/38379

American Concentration Camp located at Guantanamo Bay

The American Concentration Camp located at Guantanamo Bay must be closed. Let the people go free. Pardon them. Show them Christian charity. Stop this evil.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/20129

Lodhi lawyer welcomes Thomas appeal win

Perhaps the abc should get another Walkley award?????????????????????

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/19969

If they were any tougher they'd Rust!

Tougher terrorism laws predicted after Thomas ruling?

A top defence lawyer says he is concerned the Government might push for tougher anti-terrorism laws as a result of the quashing of convictions against Melbourne man Joseph Terrence Thomas.

abc 18 Aug 06

Judge quashes Thomas conviction

This is fantastic news. Congratulations to Jack and the Thomas family! It is a vindication of everyone prepared to fight for basic rights -- and makes the bus trip all the more important. We're in the process of putting a press release out. Good news for a change!

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/19874/index.php

Prosecution playing 'dirty tricks' in terrorism trial

The defence lawyers for Melbourne's 13 terrorism suspects have accused the prosecution of playing dirty tricks.

The prosecution today played a taped conversation between defendants Shoue Hammoud and Bassam Raad in which the prosecution alleges Raad suggests the authorities that put other members of their group in jail need to be slaughtered.

But in a heated volley of legal argument, defence lawyers said the reference to slaughter instead refereed to Raad's fears about what could happen to his friends in jail.

The defence lawyers said the prosecution was trying to drum up outrageous headlines to excite the media and to compound the fear being peddled in the Australian community.

The defence lawyers said the prosecution should just get on with the evidence.

ABC 18 Aug 06

Court hears fishing expedition letter 'referred to sacrifices to a cause'

The letter reads: "My love, How I miss you already? What would I ever do if we were separated for more than a day? Inshallah I will never find out. May the only cause for our separation be the cause of Allah. And may he grant me paradise alongside you as queen of your Hoor." [kiss, kiss, kiss, hug]

 http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/08/119746.php

Faheem Lodhi - another non-terrorist jailed under Australia's 'anti-terror' laws?

Jack Thomas, a non-terrorist, has been jailed under Australia's anti-terror laws. Now Faheem Lodhi has been convicted under the terror laws on flimsy, circumstantial evidence. It is likely he is another non-terrorist jailed for political purposes under the terror laws.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/19641

Terrorism scapegoat was kidnapped, court hears

The Melbourne Magistrates Court has heard a man charged with [allegedly] directing a terrorist organisation was kidnapped last year.

The court was told Abdul Benbrika alleged in a conversation recorded by police that he was questioned and hit during an abduction which lasted about six hours.

The defendant did not indicate who was responsible for the alleged kidnapping.

Magistrate Paul Smith heard police initiated an internal investigation into the alleged kidnapping, but it was dropped after numerous efforts to contact Benbrika.

HoWARd's abc 15 August 2006

Magistrate allows AK-47 photo to prejudice scapegoat trial

No doubt that the magistrate seeks to incorporate the media throughout the proceedings of these innocent men because of a lack of concrete evidence and just so they can be used as scapegoat's for hoWARd's war on terror.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/19476

Former medical student to stand trial in kangaroo court!

Lawyers for the 23-year-old argue the charge is not constitutionally valid because they say the laws cannot cover alleged acts committed on foreign soil which do not have an Australian connection.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/19027

Student loses bid for High Court hearing

Lawyers for the 23-year-old argue the charge is not constitutionally valid because they say the laws cannot cover alleged acts committed on foreign soil which do not have an Australian connection.

 http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/18535

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

Attorney General Ruddock attacks different laws.

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

Australia's Guantanamo

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://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/18341

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