Letter to the DPP on “Jihad Jack”

Following the court decision overturning the conviction of Jack Thomas, Michael Danby wrote to Damian Bugg, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, urging that Thomas be tried again.

While I acknowledge that the Court was obliged to act as it did in light of the inadmissibility of the interview conducted by the AFP in Pakistan, I am convinced that Mr Thomas’s ‘acquittal’ in this manner is contrary to the public interest.

Thomas was convicted on the basis of clear evidence that he went to Pakistan to train with the al-Qaida organisation and that he was expected to return to Australia as ‘Osama bin Laden’s man in Australia.’ In other words he was found on the evidence to have been a conscious and trained Islamist terrorist. Had it not been for the technicality of the error made by the AFP in Pakistan, he would most probably have been sentenced to a term in prison.

As a Member of Parliament who voted for the anti-terrorism laws in the belief that they were a necessary measure to protect Australia from the threat of Islamist terrorism, I believe the failure of the prosecution of Mr Thomas sends a deplorable signal both within Australia and externally: a signal that the Australian legal system is unable to enforce the clear will of the Parliament, namely that it is a serious offence for an Australian to train with a terrorist organisation.

While I understand that Mr Thomas cannot be tried for the same offence twice, I am informed that it is within your power to recommend that he be prosecuted for a different offence under the anti-terrorism laws, using as evidence the transcript of the interview that he gave to the ABC’s Four Corners program.

I speak on behalf of the many people in my electorate and throughout the country who have a justified fear of the spread of Islamist terrorist organisations in Australia in asking you to give serious consideration to launching a new prosecution of Mr Thomas.