BY RAY HAYES
DARWIN — On June 5, five members of the Network Against Prohibition (NAP) were given jail sentences of between 16 and 21 months for "deliberately disrupting the Legislative Assembly" last year. The maximum penalty for this "crime" is two years' jail.
NAP members Gary Meyerhoff and Robert Inder-Smith were each sentenced to 21 months' jail, suspended after five months. Stuart Highway and Emma Birkeland-Corro were sentenced to 18 months' jail, also suspended after five months. Michael Lambe was sentenced to 16 months' jail, suspended after four months
After the five lodged appeals against their convictions and four against their sentences, Darwin magistrate Dick Wallace granted each self-bail of $2000.
All five activists had pleaded not guilty to the charge of disturbing the Legislative Assembly session on May 14, 2002, during which the assembly was debating the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill. A group of about a dozen activists from the NAP entered the parliament building and made their way unchallenged to the floor of the assembly. They carried placards and banners. They were soon asked to leave by security guards and having made their point, did so peacefully.
Following their convictions, Meyerhoff said that rather than prosecuting the NAP activists, the Northern Territory Labor government "needs to address the deep underlying issues that contribute to problematic drug use. This means dealing with poverty, unemployment and structural racism. Labor just seems to take the police state approach to these issues in a pathetic attempt to win the next election."
National and international attention has already focussed on the severity of the sentences. NAP reports that messages of support and solidarity are coming in from many people seriously concerned about how a non-violent, political street theatre protest could possibly justify such heavy jail sentences.
NAP activists say that an attack on the rights of one is an attack on us all. They have vowed to continue the campaign against repressive, stale and moralistic drug laws. Protest letters demanding that the charges against the NAP activists be dropped can be sent to <minister.toyne@nt.gov.au> and cc-ed to <napnt@bigpond.com.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, June 11, 2003.
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