Sarah Stephen
Following the November 8 arrest of 18 men accused of "conspiring to do an act in preparation for a terrorist act", the media campaign against them has escalated to a witch-hunt.
Fairfax columnist Peter Hartcher declared in the November 12 Sydney Morning Herald that "the global jihad this week arrived in Australia". The same newspaper contained a two-page spread profiling the arrested men, accompanied by courtroom sketches of some of them and photographs of others' homes, some with the suburb and street name visible.
Then the November 15 SMH ran an article about one of the accused, Omar Baladjan, describing him as "emerging as a central target in the police case against an alleged Sydney terrorism cell". The article named the street his family lives in.
When the men appeared in court on November 11, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions stopped a Sydney court from giving reporters access to a court document outlining the allegations against the men. After media challenges, the suppression order was lifted on November 14 and the document was made public.
While some of the details in the document have been censored, for some reason the prosecution thought it appropriate to allow the home addresses of two of the accused and the car registration number of another to be disclosed.
The leaking of "information" to the media is happening daily. A November 10 SMH article alleges that Abdul Rakib Hasan, one of the Sydney men arrested on November 8, has "shadowy links" to Willie Brigitte. Briggitte was deported from Australia in October 2003 for working on a tourist visa, and framed by the media as allegedly having connections with the organisers of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US and the March 11, 2004, attack in Madrid. The media accused Brigitte of being in Australia to help a local group "prepare a terrorist act of great size".
Brigitte's trial by media was so intense that most people probably assume he was charged, tried and is now behind bars. In fact, Brigitte remains free because the case against him remains flimsy conjecture.
He was arrested upon his return to France, where he is awaiting trial on a charge of"associating with a terrorist organisation".
The police statement of allegations that was released to the media on November 14 contains information gathered during more than 18 months of surveillance, including about chemical purchases, possible targets for attack, covert meetings, bomb data information and a summary of items seized during raids.
Police revealed that they considered the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor a "potential" target for a terrorist attack because three of the men were stopped in their car in the vicinity of the reactor. This made the front pages on November 15, including a Daily Telegraph headline that screamed: "Terror plot to bomb Sydney — nuclear plant in their sights".
Yet the men were not charged with plotting a terrorist attack on a particular target. In fact, ASIO and the police insist that the amendment rushed through federal parliament on November 3, which removed the requirement for evidence that a terrorist suspect was preparing to attack a specific target, was essential to allow them to make the November 8 arrests. Clearly, they had found no evidence that Lucas Heights was a target — but it makes bloody good headlines!
Whether the 18 men arrested on November 8 are guilty or not of the alleged offences, the media treatment of the issue has already denied them a fair trial.