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Australian Financial Review
October 25, 2014 Saturday
Temptation to misuse terrorism laws 'too strong'
by Hannah Low
Civil liberties Leading QC calls for judicial oversight of new
security legislation.
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, QC, has warned that any new
terrorism legislation will be used in the future to prosecute everyone
from drug dealers to tax evaders.
The celebrity barrister, speaking from Sydney on Friday, told AFR
Weekend that the new terrorism laws would have unintended consequences
and result in an erosion of civil liberties.
"There is an increasing demand once you get away with using these
powers in relation to somewhat unlikely terrorist threats, then they
will be used for other reasons," he said.
"And you will find ... that these powers will be used to hunt down tax
avoiders, they will be used for drug smuggling. Once you open
Aladdin's cave to law enforcement, there will be no stopping them."
The comments from the British-based human rights lawyer came hours
after a suspected Islamic State sympathiser shot dead a soldier in
Ottawa, Canada, and then went on a firing spree inside Parliament.
It was the second killing in Canada within three days and came as the
Canadian government was due to table new anti-terrorism legislation.
The Australian government is attempting to pass the second tranche of
laws aimed at combating so-called freedom fighters, which creates a
new offence of advocating terrorism, as well as prohibiting travel to
particular countries.
Mr Robertson warned against the laws, saying any new terrorist threat
caused a knee-jerk reaction that more laws were needed.
"The extensive powers that the federal police and intelligence
agencies already have are probably sufficient," Mr Robertson said,
adding that they have been used to foil a number of plots.Judicial
oversight key
The key to any new laws which further eroded civil liberties was that
there should be sufficient judicial oversight and an ability to
investigate whether such draconian powers had been properly exercised,
he said.
"There has to be vigilance over the misuse, because just history tells
us that give these powers unchecked and the temptation to misuse them
will be too strong."
Mr Robertson also raised concerns over proposed laws that make it
illegal for anyone, including journalists, to disclose special
intelligence operations, which could carry a 10-year sentence.
"I do think the principle objection to the bill is the way it
constrains and chills free speech about an important area of
government activity," he said. "There should at least be a public
interest defence."
Mr Robertson was in Greece last week with the newly married Mrs
Clooney, Amal Alamuddin, advising the Greek government on its push to
have the Elgin Marbles returned to the Parthenon from the British
Museum.
He then flew to Australia to promote his new book, An Inconvenient
Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians?, which details the mass
killing of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Turkish Empire during
the First World War.
Mr Robertson said a number of parallels could be drawn between the
events that began in 1915 and what was happening today in northern
Iraq and Syria. It was clear, he said, that IS was committing
fundamental war crimes by executing prisoners of war, but there had
also been killings of Christian and Shiite communities due to their
failure to convert.
"That is genocide that we are entitled to stop if either state - Iraq
or Syria - fails or cannot meet their responsibilities to protect
their own civilians," he said.
October 25, 2014 Saturday
Temptation to misuse terrorism laws 'too strong'
by Hannah Low
Civil liberties Leading QC calls for judicial oversight of new
security legislation.
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, QC, has warned that any new
terrorism legislation will be used in the future to prosecute everyone
from drug dealers to tax evaders.
The celebrity barrister, speaking from Sydney on Friday, told AFR
Weekend that the new terrorism laws would have unintended consequences
and result in an erosion of civil liberties.
"There is an increasing demand once you get away with using these
powers in relation to somewhat unlikely terrorist threats, then they
will be used for other reasons," he said.
"And you will find ... that these powers will be used to hunt down tax
avoiders, they will be used for drug smuggling. Once you open
Aladdin's cave to law enforcement, there will be no stopping them."
The comments from the British-based human rights lawyer came hours
after a suspected Islamic State sympathiser shot dead a soldier in
Ottawa, Canada, and then went on a firing spree inside Parliament.
It was the second killing in Canada within three days and came as the
Canadian government was due to table new anti-terrorism legislation.
The Australian government is attempting to pass the second tranche of
laws aimed at combating so-called freedom fighters, which creates a
new offence of advocating terrorism, as well as prohibiting travel to
particular countries.
Mr Robertson warned against the laws, saying any new terrorist threat
caused a knee-jerk reaction that more laws were needed.
"The extensive powers that the federal police and intelligence
agencies already have are probably sufficient," Mr Robertson said,
adding that they have been used to foil a number of plots.Judicial
oversight key
The key to any new laws which further eroded civil liberties was that
there should be sufficient judicial oversight and an ability to
investigate whether such draconian powers had been properly exercised,
he said.
"There has to be vigilance over the misuse, because just history tells
us that give these powers unchecked and the temptation to misuse them
will be too strong."
Mr Robertson also raised concerns over proposed laws that make it
illegal for anyone, including journalists, to disclose special
intelligence operations, which could carry a 10-year sentence.
"I do think the principle objection to the bill is the way it
constrains and chills free speech about an important area of
government activity," he said. "There should at least be a public
interest defence."
Mr Robertson was in Greece last week with the newly married Mrs
Clooney, Amal Alamuddin, advising the Greek government on its push to
have the Elgin Marbles returned to the Parthenon from the British
Museum.
He then flew to Australia to promote his new book, An Inconvenient
Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians?, which details the mass
killing of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Turkish Empire during
the First World War.
Mr Robertson said a number of parallels could be drawn between the
events that began in 1915 and what was happening today in northern
Iraq and Syria. It was clear, he said, that IS was committing
fundamental war crimes by executing prisoners of war, but there had
also been killings of Christian and Shiite communities due to their
failure to convert.
"That is genocide that we are entitled to stop if either state - Iraq
or Syria - fails or cannot meet their responsibilities to protect
their own civilians," he said.