Australia apology to Indian doctor over terror charge

(AFP) – Australia has made a formal apology to Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef for his wrongful detention in 2007 over failed extremist attacks at airports in London and Glasgow. The move follows the payment of undisclosed compensation to Haneef, who was detained and charged with giving support to a terrorist organisation after his mobile phone [...]

Rights group warns Australia detainee transfer program may violate international law

[JURIST] Australia’s new Afghan detainee transfer policy may violate international human rights laws, Amnesty International warned Tuesday. The new detainee management system, announced Tuesday by Australian Minister of Defence Stephen Smith, provides for the systematic transfer of “high risk” detainees to US forces and “low risk” detainees to Afghan forces. According to AI Asia-Pacific director [...]

Five men on trial for planning Australian Army attack

An Australian court has begun on Monday hearing the case against five Melbourne men accused of planning a terrorist attack on the Holsworthy Army base in Sydney. The Prosecutor said that the men planned to shoot as many people as possible in the planned suicide raid on the army base in retaliation for Australia’s involvement [...]

Google accused of criminal intent by privacy rights group

(JURIST) Advocacy group Privacy International (PI) on 9 June accused Google of criminal intent for the collection of private data through unsecured Wi-Fi networks while collecting images for the website’s Street Map view. PI released its statement in response an independent audit published by Google on the company’s official blog. PI claims that information gathered [...]

Australian intelligence used to jail woman in Yemen

The Sidney Morning Herald reports that, according to Yemen’s National Organisation for Defending Rights and Freedoms, Australia provided intelligence about a Yemeni-based Australian woman – who was subsequently jailed and her young children placed under home detention – to Yemeni security police via the FBI. ”Yemen is dealing with the FBI, which has its own [...]

New phone tap powers planned for Australian intelligence agencies

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that a new intelligence review confirmed in the Australian federal budget is expected to examine strict limits on how agencies set up to protect against foreign threats can operate inside Australia. The review would consider giving Australia’s defence intelligence agency the powers to tap phones inside Australia, and give [...]

Australian terrorist suspect disappears in military intelligence detention in Uganda

Hashi Hussein Farah and “a dozen others”, were arrested by the Joint Anti-terrorism Taskforce (JATT) in Kisenyi slum in the capital Kampala, Uganda, allegedly on the 1st of April. He was paraded on television later in the evening. The terror suspects were taken away by the anti-terrorism squad for further interrogation to an unknown place [...]

Australia: Bill Establishing Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Passed

The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Bill 2010 was passed by the Australian Parliament on March 18, 2010. The bill establishes a new position of National Security Legislation Monitor, with responsibility for reviewing and reporting on the “operation, effectiveness and implications of Australia’s counter-terrorism and national security legislation on an ongoing basis,” and for considering [...]

Australia court rules former Guantanamo detainee can sue government

The Federal Court of Australia ruled Thursday that former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib can sue the Australian government for complicity in his ill-treatment while incarcerated in Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Habib claims he suffered sleep deprivation, electrocution, and drug injections during his detainment, some of which happened in collusion with or in [...]

UN experts conclude major study into use of secret detention in the fight against terrorism

Despite the fact that international law clearly prohibits secret detention, the practice is widespread and “reinvigorated” by the so-called global war on terror, several independent United Nations experts stated, outlining a series of steps aimed at curbing this human rights violation. In a 222-page study which will be presented to the United Nations Human Rights [...]