"ATTORNEY-GENERAL Robert McClelland has hailed the conviction of Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika and five of his followers on terror charges as the most successful terrorist prosecution in Australian history.
But Mr McClelland warned that more needed to be done to prevent the radicalisation of Muslim communities. He said the prosecutions provided a model for how law enforcement and security agencies should work together.
"It is my view that the successful prosecution in the Pendennis trials is the most successful terrorist prosecution that this country has seen," Mr McClelland said yesterday.
He praised the work of the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and Victoria Police, saying the trial had been "lengthy and complicated".
Mr McClelland said more than 50 witnesses and more than 3000 documents had been tendered during the trial.
But he warned that, despite the prosecutions, Australia still faced terror attacks from overseas organisations and home-grown cells.
He said it would be naive to discount the risk of a terrorist attack in Australia. "The area where we think there needs to be more work is in the area of counter-radicalisation," Mr McClelland said.
"The Government is actually undertaking a considerable amount of work in that area to understand the factors that have led to young Australians being radicalised."
Now Sebago Rob is faced with an irate Justice Bernard Bongiorno who didn't appreciate his comments and: "told the court it would have been better for the justice system had his comments never been made."
Bongiorno showed admirable restraint in his response.
Any juror who read Tuesday's newspaper might just have been swayed into thinking that handing out two more convictions would be saving teh Aussie way of life as we know it.
No comments:
Post a Comment