Ray Fulcher, Melbourne

Joseph “Jack” Thomas was sentenced to five years’ jail on March 31 for receiving $3500 and an airline ticket from an al Qaeda operative.

Thomas was convicted by the Victorian supreme court in February of receiving support from a terrorist organisation and falsifying a passport. He was acquitted on two other charges, of being a terrorist and a “sleeper” for al Qaeda in Australia.

Thomas was given a two-year, non-parole period in jail, which means that given the time he has already served he could be out on parole in 20 months. Thomas will be held in Victoria’s maximum security facility at Barwon prison.

Thomas’s lawyers are seeking his removal from solitary confinement and to have him admitted to the general prison population. Under the current prison regime, Thomas will have contact with his three children only once a month.

While delivering the sentence, Justice Philip Cummins commented on the protests that took place outside the court at the beginning of Thomas’s trial. Cummins said that he agreed with the protesters that evidence obtained under torture should not be admitted in an Australian court, but added that he did not believe Thomas had been tortured.

Thomas’s lawyers will lodge an appeal against his conviction on April 3. One of the grounds for appeal will be the inadmissibility of the only evidence produced against Thomas — statements he gave in Pakistan after undergoing torture at the hands of that country’s security service.

From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.
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