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Down Under

Australian police had Bali bomb evidence fears

2012-10-06

Australian police had serious fears Indonesian authorities were about to destroy crucial evidence from the Bali bombings because of Muslim burial traditions, former commissioner Mick Keelty has revealed. Mr Keelty was commissioner of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) at the time of the terror attacks carried out by Jemaah Islamiah. He was responsible for leading Australia’s response, including helping Indonesian police in their ultimately successful hunt for the perpetrators. But the former commissioner revealed there were fears that Indonesian authorities would destroy crucial clues because of the Muslim custom of burying the dead within 24 hours. He said, “Muslims bury their dead within 24 hours, but we know that in our own experience in Western traditions if you have a murder in Sydney you could potentially leave the body in situ for 24 hours or more. There was that tension (in Bali) about cleaning up the crime scene very quickly. And some of the Indonesians are very good at that, they get on with things.” Keelty said there were also fears that the federal police would not be able to give the Australian government and public a quick and proper explanation of what happened if the evidence was not analysed correctly. Keelty said, “When there’s bombs exploding, you can’t discern one body from another It’s very hard to identify people. We talked to Indonesia about the Interpol international standard, which was to have fingerprints or other forms of identification – DNA – and of course DNA identification takes a lot of time. “Back here at home, people just wanted answers. People wanted to know whether their relatives were alive or dead. That was a very frustrating time at home. People wanted answers and wanted them straight away.” He said the co-operation between Australia and Indonesia in the aftermath of the attack had become the envy of law enforcement agencies around the world, including America’s FBI.

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Down Under

Haneef may have been planning Australian terror attack

2007-07-21

* AFP finds "unusual" landmark building photos * Haneef claims ordinary tourist shots * Haneef, Ahmed emails now possible evidence POLICE are investigating whether Mohamed Haneef was part of a planned terrorist attack on a landmark building at the Gold Coast. Australian Federal Police are examining images of the building and its foundations found among documents and photographs seized in a police raid on the doctor's Southport unit three weeks ago. The AFP inquiry is looking at documents referring to destroying structures discovered in the raid, law enforcement sources said. The investigation also is examining information seized in the raid which indicated the Gold Coast doctor planned to leave Australia the day before or after September 11 - the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York. It is understood in his second interview with the AFP last Saturday, Haneef was questioned about photographs of him and his family taken in Queensland and overseas. Haneef, a registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital since September last year, explained that the images were only tourist shots. Investigators consider some of the photos seized are not ordinary holiday photos. The AFP investigation is also looking at information that Haneef was one of a group of doctors who had been familiarising themselves with the operation of planes at a Queensland premises. Haneef, 27, was last week charged with recklessly supporting terrorist activity by providing a mobile phone SIM card to his second cousins, Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed, both of whom are being held in Britain over the failed terrorist attacks. Haneef's solicitor Peter Russo said he knew nothing about the investigations into the documents and photographs relating to the Gold Coast building or destroying structures. "He wasn't questioned about the majority of these matters," Mr Russo said. "A couple of other questions were asked ... but not in such a fashion that we could tell what they were talking about. "Obviously if you're Muslim and you come from India, don't dare take any photos of any structures ... or that will be interpreted by the Queensland police force of having a sinister intent." The AFP has been criticised for its handling of the investigation after it was revealed that Haneef's SIM card was not found in the burnt-out Jeep at Glasgow airport after the botched terror attack on June 30, as a Brisbane court was told a week ago. Instead, the SIM card was discovered eight hours later in Liverpool with Sabeel Ahmed, who is facing the minor charge of withholding information. Law enforcement sources said AFP agents have downloaded information from four computers in the library of the Gold Coast Hospital where Dr Haneef has worked as a junior registrar since September last year. The investigators are trolling through 31,000 electronic pages, most of it in Hindi. A senior source confirmed yesterday that emails between Haneef and the Ahmed brothers in Britain are now seen as possible evidence. An AFP spokeswoman said Commissioner Mick Keelty would not confirm or deny the allegations as the matter is before the court. Hours after being granted conditional bail by a Brisbane magistrate on Monday, the Federal Government cancelled Haneef's visa on character grounds. A hearing will be held in the Federal Court next month to determine whether he will remain in custody while he awaits trial. Haneef is currently being held at Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre.

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Down Under

Oz police charge Indian doctor over UK terror plot

2007-07-14

Australian federal police charged an Indian doctor with providing support to a terrorist organization Saturday, allegedly linking him to last month's failed British bombings. An Indian you say! A Hindu? A Sikh? A Christian? A Buddhist? Muhammad Haneef, 27, is accused of providing a group suspected in the botched attacks with access to his mobile phone SIM card, police said. NO!!!! None of those faiths! Mr. Haneef is the second person to be charged in the attacks on London and Glasgow on June 29 and 30. The other is Bilal Abdullah, who is being held in London on charges of conspiring to set off explosions. “The specific allegation involves recklessness rather than intention,” Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty told reporters. Haneef had been “reckless about some of the support he provided to that group, in particular the provision of his SIM card.” British police raised suspicions about Mr. Haneef when they allegedly found his mobile telephone's SIM card in the possession of one of the men accused in the failed car bomb attacks last month. Hey, people swap SIM cards all the time. What's the big deal? Not like they were exchanging garage door openers or anything. Media reports later identified the man as Sabeel Ahmed, Mr. Haneef's distant cousin and former lover housemate, who is being questioned by British police over the foiled plot. Official documents cited by The Australian newspaper on Friday said Mr. Haneef gave the SIM card to Mr. Ahmed before he moved to Australia so that his cousin could take advantage of free minutes left on his mobile phone plan. Next time get the Family Plan and share those minutes. Commissioner Keelty confirmed police would oppose bail when Mr. Haneef appears in Brisbane court later in the day. The police chief said Mr. Haneef would be prosecuted in Australia unless British police “have any evidence in the U.K. that would sustain an extradition application.” A suspect can only be extradited to another country if that country has enough evidence to charge the person with an offence. In Britain, the office of the prime minister, the Home Office, the Foreign Office and London's Metropolitan Police all declined to comment on the charges when reached early Saturday. Police began interrogating Mr. Haneef on Friday afternoon after withdrawing a court application to extend his detention without charge beyond Friday. Under Australia's counter-terror laws, police can only hold a suspect without charge with a court order. Mr. Haneef was charged early Saturday after being questioned in hour-long blocks through Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning, his lawyer Peter Russo told reporters in Brisbane. Mr. Russo said his client was extremely upset by the charge and would apply for bail. "You ain't got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! Let me speak to me mouthpiece!"

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Down Under

Australia charges Dr. Haneef over UK terror links

2007-07-14

Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef has been charged with providing support to a terrorist organisation, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a statement today. Police will allege Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef supported a terrorist organisation by "recklessly" giving his mobile phone SIM card to people planning car bomb attacks in the UK. Dr Haneef, an Indian national who worked as a registrar at Gold Coast Hospital, will today face Brisbane Magistrates Court. "The specific allegation involves recklessness rather than intention,'' Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said today. "The allegation being that he was reckless about some of the support he provided to that group, in particular the provision of his SIM card for the use of the group.'' There is a presumption against bail for people charged with terrorism offences and Mr Keelty confirmed police would oppose bail. The maximum penalty for the terrorism support offence is 15 years jail. Dr Haneef has been held in custody in Brisbane since his arrest at the city's airport on July 2 in connection with foiled bomb attacks in London and Glasgow. The Gold Coast Hospital doctor is related to two men detained in the UK over the plot, Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed, who allegedly drove a Jeep Cherokee into Glasgow airport. Police today had 12 hours to question Dr Haneef before they had to either release him or charge him. He has been held in custody for 12 days, under new Australian anti-terrorism laws. He was arrested at Brisbane airport on July 2 with a one-way ticket to India. Dr Haneef told authorities he was on his way to Bangalore to visit his wife, who had just given birth. Mazel tov, numbnuts. Police yesterday withdrew a request for an extension of time to question Dr Haneef, prompting wide speculation he would be released without charge today. Dr Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo told the ABC he had spent all night at federal police headquarters in Brisbane where his client was questioned. He said Dr Haneef had been transferred to the Brisbane watchhouse this morning. His client is very upset by the news and will apply for bail, Mr Russo said. Dr Haneef reportedly shared a house in the British city of Liverpool with Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed for up to two years before Dr Haneef moved to Australia, and remained in contact by phone and online messaging after that. Police have also said they suggest a possible link between Dr Haneef and Mr Abdullah. Australian officials have previously said Dr Haneef was arrested after his mobile phone's SIM card was found in the possession of one of the British suspects, later identified by media reports as Sabeel Ahmed. Official documents cited by The Australian newspaper yesterday said Dr Haneef gave the SIM card to Sabeel Ahmed before he moved to Australia from Britain last year so that his cousin could take advantage of free minutes left on his mobile phone plan.

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Down Under

Australian Federal Police granted more time to hold Dr. Haneef

2007-07-09

DETAINED Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef will spend at least two extra days behind bars but is not expected to be questioned during that time. The development came last night after a Brisbane magistrate extended an existing custody order by 48 hours. The 27-year-old Gold Coast Hospital registrar has been held without charge for a week under federal counter-terrorism powers since he was arrested at Brisbane airport. He is being questioned over the failed attacks in London and Glasgow airport, as well as his connection with an underground network of radical Islamist doctors. It is understood the Australian Federal Police had initially asked for an extension of five days and that last night's extension effectively adjourns the application until tomorrow morning. Dr Haneef will remain detained at the city watchhouse and is not expected to be questioned before then. It is understood the extension will give the AFP time to respond to questions of law raised in yesterday's closed session hearing. AFP boss Mick Keelty has said officers could then ask for yet more time to hold Dr Haneef. more at link..

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Down Under

Anti-terror raids in Australia, 5 detained, 2 hospitals searched

2007-07-07

TWO West Australian hospitals have been raided and a further five foreign doctors questioned as Australian inquiries connected to the foiled United Kingdom terrorist attacks spread to two more states. WA police yesterday interviewed and released four Indian doctors working on 457 skilled migrant visas after raiding the Kalgoorlie and Royal Perth hospitals, along with two more undisclosed premises. Another overseas doctor in New South Wales was interviewed by counter-terrorism police yesterday. Federal police also are combing through 31,000 documents – some of them in foreign languages – seized in the raids, including on laptop computers. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said several items had been taken by police for further examination, including mobile phones and laptop computers. "The linkages are with people who are known to each other and that's prompting the further inquiries," he said. "This is not about doctors. These are people who are of similar nationalities, and the warrants that were executed in WA were in Kalgoorlie and Royal Perth Hospital." * Two WA hospitals raided * Four doctors questioned * Overseas doc interviewed by police * Police combing through documents Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty said the doctors interviewed by police were foreign-trained and had worked in Britain. He urged Australians not to be concerned about the medical profession. "What we want to do is just reassure people this is not an investigation into the medical practitioners per se. It's an investigation in support of the investigation by the London Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command," Mr Keelty said. Mr Ruddock said the AFP and WA police had been working in close cooperation and were liaising closely with other Australian authorities and the UK. "It should be emphasised that a presumption of innocence exists in every police inquiry. No one has been arrested, charged or detained in relation to these inquiries," he said. "There is no suggestion of any threat to the people of WA and the Australian Government has received no information which would result in an increased threat. "As this is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further." The AFP has been given until Monday night to hold Dr Haneef in Queensland during which time it will peruse a huge number of documents seized during the Australian raids. "Obviously (the documents) take some time to work through, particularly if they're in a foreign language," Mr Keelty said. WA Premier Alan Carpenter said he did not want to see a backlash against overseas-trained doctors. "There is nothing that has been presented to us by the police that would lead us to believe that we have got issues with our overseas trained doctors, Indian-trained or otherwise," he said. "I would not like to see a common slur against our Indian or other overseas-trained doctors because of what's happening in Britain or what's going on with the investigation in Brisbane. "That would be very, very regrettable."

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Britain

Muslim groups in UK come out against terror

2007-07-07

All four doctors picked up for questioning by Australian cops had formerly worked in Britain’s National Health Service and had come into contact with Haneef, Australia’s federal police chief Mick Keelty said on Friday. Meanwhile, the police got permission to hold Haneef for four more days. Sensing a building bias, Muslim groups in Britain on Friday came out against terrorism. The Muslim United Coalition placed advertisements in British newspapers praising the emergency services as "courageous" and the British government for its "calm and proportionate" reaction to the crisis. The ads quoted the Quran: "Whoever kills an innocent soul, it is as if he killed the whole of mankind. And whoever saves one, it is as if he saved mankind." The organisers have set up a website, www.islamispeace.org.uk, to promote its message. A British newspaper claimed that the London and Glasgow foiled terror attacks had the blessings of Osama. It quoted a foreign intelligence source as saying: "The warning an Al Qaida leader in Iraq delivered to Canon Andrew White — ‘Those who cure you will kill you’ — certainly suggested that he knew of the doctors’ plot." It’s now becoming clear that Kafeel Ahmed and Bilal Abdulla, the duo that sought to ram a gas cylinder-laden jeep into the Glasgow Airport last Saturday, had placed the two car bombs a day earlier in London’s Haymarket which were detected before they could explode. Kafeel, who has suffered 90% burns, was moved on Friday from Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital — where co-terrorist Bilal worked — to a specialist burns unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Kafeel is on a ventilator and seems to be losing the fight for life. He is, therefore, in no state to be questioned by the cops. According to at least one of Kafeel’s former acquaintances, British Pakistani former radical Shiraz Maher, he was best mates with Iraqi medic Bilal Abdulla. Describing Kafeel as more radical than Abdulla, Maher claimed that the only reason the Indian did not formally join the violently-extremist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir was because the Iraqi kept him away. Kafeel is now thought to be the chief bomb-maker, who constructed the devices that were planted in central London and carried in the Glasgow jeep. The Bangalorean, who listed his British address as the Islamic Academy in Cambridge in 2005, is said to have described his speciality on his CV as "computational fluid dynamics". He used the email identity of "kingkaf", with all its grandiose pretensions. Kafeel’s brother, Sabeel, who is also under arrest for his involvement in the terror plots, had repeatedly applied for jobs in various hospitals in Australia, only to be turned down because of inadequate qualifications and experience. But the Australian authorities’ claim that Kafeel too had unsuccessfully applied for a job in Australian hospitals does not square up with the fact that Kafeel has been described as an engineer with a PhD, not a medical doctor. The intensifying pace of the Australian crackdown on and round-up of Indian doctors came as the head of the country’s Medical Association, Professor Geoff Dobb, insisted the Indians’ alleged complicity in terrorism would not affect public’s attitude to "overseas-trained doctors".

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Down Under

Extra patrols in Qld as Gold Coast doctor questioned

2007-07-04

SECURITY at tonight's third State of Origin rugby league match in Brisbane and at APEC meetings elsewhere in Queensland will be beefed up following the arrest of Gold Coast-based doctor Mohammed Haneef in connection with terror plots in the United Kingdom. Tens of thousands of people are expected to pack Suncorp Stadium in inner Brisbane for tonight's match. Queensland Police have said there is no specific threat to the match, but police will be out in extra numbers just in case. Extra patrols will also be in force at an APEC 2007 trade ministers' meeting starting in Cairns tomorrow. Australian Federal Police officers have been granted an extra 48 hours to hold Dr Haneef, who was detained at Brisbane international airport for questioning over the car bomb plot in London and the attack on Glasgow airport. AFP commissioner Mick Keelty has said it should be known by then if Dr Haneef - who was arrested as he was preparing to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur on Monday night - will be charged with any offences. "We have had obviously significant time with Dr Haneef. We are hopeful that we'll be able to clarify his situation in the course of the next 48 hours or so," he said on ABC radio. "If we wanted to detain him any longer we would have to go back to the court." Mr Keelty later gave his first hint at the evidence that led to Dr Haneef's arrest. "I know there is speculation in the press about a phone call," he said, adding that there was "a lot more" to it than that. "There is a considerable amount of material that's been provided to us that we are working through." A senior British police officer is heading to Australia to interview Dr Haneef. She will arrive tomorrow. A second doctor questioned yesterday by AFP officers has been released without charge this morning. "This person is now free to go and free to go about his own business, and we should respect his liberty and his privacy," Mr Keelty has said on the Nine Network. Prime Minister John Howard has also stressed that Dr Haneef has not been charged with any crime. "The man has been detained, he has been taken into custody, he has not been charged with any offence," Mr Howard has said. "Until he is - and he may not be, it will depend very much on how the investigations go - it is appropriate to extend to him a presumption of innocence." British police are reported to have requested a speedy extradition of Dr Haneef, amid speculation that he may have been known to Britain's top spy agency MI5 before his arrest. Reports in the UK have said all eight suspects held have appeared on the MI5 database. Seven of those arrested are doctors or trainee doctors while the sole woman among those held - believed to be the wife of another of the suspects - is a laboratory researcher, reports have said. The head of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security, Professor Anthony Glees, said he believed at least one of those arrested was already known to Britain's top spooks and on MI5's database. Security sources quoted in British reports have said their appearances on watchlists shows was to be expected and proves the security services are keeping tabs on the right areas of society. Dr Haneef was appointed registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital at Southport last September after being recruited from a hospital near Liverpool in northern England. He studied in Bangalore. One of the doctors arrested, a 26-year-old man arrested in the northern English city of Liverpool on Sunday, worked at the same hospital as Dr Haneef and the nearby Warrington Hospital. The other doctors arrested reportedly worked at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent in England. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has denied national security was being compromised by poor vetting of temporary visas. Mr Ruddock said there had been no "lowering of the bar" in relation to the processing of doctors when they arrived to work in Australia.

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Garuda crash flight recorders arrive in Australia

2007-03-09

The black boxes from the Garuda plane that crashed in Yogyakarta two days ago have arrived at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's (ATSB) head offices in Canberra. The boxes, a cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, will help investigators piece together the events leading up to the crash that killed more than 20 people. Once the recorders are inspected, investigators will be able to determine if any flight data can be retrieved. The pilots of the Garuda flight have blamed a sudden strong wind gust for the crash at Yogyakarta airport. But Indonesia's national police spokesman has cited human error as the best initial assessment. Five Australians survived the crash and five others are missing, presumed dead. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty says many witnesses have already given accounts of the lead-up to the crash but the black box recorder will give an objective indication of what occurred. "It takes some time to work through all the pieces of detail and all the pieces of evidence until we can be firm on what actually has occurred," he said. "That is a source of frustration. "Speculation doesn't help because we would have had a version of events that started basically from last Wednesday to a version of events that will finally appear, in terms of Australia, before one of our coroners." ATSB spokesman Joe Hattley says it could take months for a full analysis of the flight recorders. "The guys will be working over the weekend to download these particular recorders," he said. "Then we hope to get some preliminary information back to the investigation team probably early on next week. "The analysis of that information will then take a lot longer and you're talking months."

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Muslims not the enemy: AFP chief

2006-09-15

Mick Keelty is the top cop in Australia. Is it me, or does it seem like he has gone over to the other side? FEDERAL police commissioner Mick Keelty has urged people to back off Muslims, insisting Islamic Australia is not to blame for terrorism. In a revealing interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Keelty said racial profiling was self-defeating because it risked alienating mainstream Muslims while ignoring the real danger of homegrown non-Muslim terror. "I remind people that the firstperson who was convicted of a terrorist offence in Australia was a person with the unlikely name of Jack Roche," the police chief said. And Mr Keelty said he did not like the phrase "the war on terror", because it did not apply in Australia. "Unless people understand what is happening here, we risk alienating the Islamic community, we risk branding the Islamic community," he said. Mr Keelty made no criticism, direct or implied, of how politicians were conducting the debates on immigration and terror. But his message of inclusion is in contrast to the thrust of federal politics in the past few weeks.

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Down Under

Keelty shocked at suicide-baby bomb plot

2006-08-13

AUSTRALIA'S top police officer has described an alleged plan to use a baby in the foiled British terror bombing plot as a chilling development. But Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has backed away from tougher security measures at airports, saying the idea of testing infant's milk before air travel should be left up to regulators. Scotland Yard police are questioning a husband and wife who allegedly planned to hide a liquid bomb in their baby's bottle to bring down an airliner. They are among the 23 suspects arrested over the plot to blow up airliners headed for the United States in mid-flight. Mr Keelty today expressed dismay at the alleged plan to use a child in a suicide mission. "The phenomena of suicide bombings as a new way of taking part in terror attacks is in itself concerning, but to think or imagine that anybody would use an innocent child to join them is even more disconcerting," he said on Channel 9. "And I think it just goes to show you the sorts of difficulties that we're now facing in the environment that we're all in." But Mr Keelty was cautious about the state of airport security and brushed aside the question of testing babies' milk. "That's an issue for the regulatory authorities, for the airline operators, you know, we've got to think about a lot of people here, a lot of interests," he said. "We've got airlines that need to fly, we've got a lot of people employed by airlines and in the airline industry. "We need to take advice from the airline operators and also the regulatory agencies like the Department of Transport and Regional Services." Mr Keelty said shutting down airports in the wake of the UK plot would hand victory to the terrorists. "The important thing here is that we get on with life, that if we shut everything down, if we make it so hard to travel by air or by any other means, if we shut our lives down it means that the terrorists have won," he said. "What we've got to do is work within a balance, we've got to risk manage it, we've got to understand where the risks are and deploy resources appropriately to where those risks are. "But the reality of life is that this is a new world order and nobody's got an easy fix solution to this. We're all dealing with it." Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb. Cossor took her baby with her to the police station during last week's raids but her son is now being cared for by grandparents. Cossor's grandfather, Nazir Ahmed, 84, said Abdula had travelled to Pakistan about four weeks ago. "We didn't understand what the hurry was and why he needed to go," Mr Ahmed said. A neighbour at the flats where the married couple lived said he would be stunned if claims were true. "I simply cannot believe he could have been involved in a plot like this. He is religious and seemed to love his family," the neighbour said. "I would never have dreamed he could have been involved in anything like this." A family friend of Cossor said she had known the arrested mother 12 years and believed her to be innocent. "I think it is a case of mistaken identity. The last thing she'd be interested in is terrorism. They are just simple day-to-day people going about their own business," she said. Police in England have reportedly recovered bottles containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from a recycling centre close to the homes of some of the arrested suspects. It has emerged MI5 agents launched covert intrusions on the homes of some suspects several weeks ago in "sneak and peek" operations to plant listening devices and gather evidence ahead of the arrests last week. Links between suspects in the jet bomb plot and those behind the London 7/7 attacks have also come to light. There are reports as many as five of those arrested attended the same terror training camp in Pakistan as two of the July 7 London suicide bombers. And US intelligence sources said they believed at least two of the suspects had trained in Karachi and met al-Qaeda operatives in the lead up to the 7/7 attacks.

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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".

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