Pubdate: Tue, 26 Dec 2006
Source: Advertiser, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2006 Advertiser Newspapers Ltd
Contact: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/opinion/sendletter
Website: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Schapelle+Corby
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Renae+Lawrence

IMBALANCE IN THE SCALES OF JUSTICE

AUSTRALIA has been subjected to its fair share of criticism of late 
for questioning, sometimes rejecting, the outcome of legal systems 
operating beyond our borders. When we have reacted loudly and 
passionately to perceived injustices - particularly where the death 
sentence is involved - the Federal Government has been quick to point 
out the impropriety of seeking to interfere in another country's 
judicial processes.

Nevertheless, events in neighbouring Indonesia over the past 72 hours 
do beg the question of whether Canberra sometimes errs on the side of 
diplomacy when domestically, it needs to be seen to be far more 
forthright in expressing the outrage of everyday Australians when 
things appear to be amiss.

We know that Indonesia deals harshly with young Australians for drug 
offences, evidenced enough by the high-profile cases of Schapelle 
Corby and Renae Lawrence, both serving 20-year jail terms. There is 
no doubt they deserved to be punished for their part in the abhorrent 
crimes of drug trafficking.

But on the scales of justice, the one-month remission they each 
received at the weekend for good behaviour can simply not be balanced 
when considered alongside the Supreme Court's decision last week to 
quash the conviction of radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for 
conspiring over the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2004 attack of 
Jakarta's P.J. Marriott Hotel.

Australians were targeted, and died, in both bloody acts of terror, 
which claimed the lives of 202 and 14 people respectively.

The Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, says he has "no doubt 
whatsoever" that Bashir is guilty and voiced his disgust at the court's ruling.

Similarly, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, presumably the 
recipient of top-level intelligence to back up his claims, says 
Bashir is still advocating violence and promoting an extremist agenda.

Bashir's early release from jail sparked widespread anger in itself 
in Australia, but Indonesia's latest court ruling clearing him of any 
involvement in these atrocities is even more distressing.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake