THIS IS JUSTICE?

I believe Joseph Gutnick is right. And I am not talking about his Don Quixote skirmishes with he embattled but beloved Melbourne Football Club.

Yesterday, on this programme, we broke the news that Australia’s first ever convicted terrorist, Jack Roche, had been jailed for nine years. A maximum of nine years. The minimum was four and a bit and after time served on remand Roche could be out and about very soon.

The prosecution wanted a 25-year sentence and if Roche were convicted of terrorist activity in the United States that would have been a bare minimum.

Gutnick has called the light sentence “pathetic” and he is right.

Roche met with Osama Bin Laden. He met with the leaders of Jemaah Islamiah – who plotted and carried out the Bali bombings which killed 200 people including nearly ninety Australians.

He scouted and photographed the Israeli Embassy in Canberra and discussed kidnapping and even killing Gutnick because he was such prominent supporter of Israel and a philanthropist.

Gutnick says: “That a terrorist who was trying to blow up an embassy and trying to kill me should walk away after three years makes me quite aggravated and quite disappointed”.

He also said that other terrorist cells planning similar attacks would be “rubbing their hands with glee” at the “bizarre” outcome.

Roche admitted he had taken more than $12,000 of Al Qaeda money to finance his anarchy in Australia.

He changed his plea to “guilty” after two days in the witness box under damning cross-examination. Judge Paul Healy took that change of plea into account.

He also, strangely said, that Roche was an “intelligent man”. Surely that should mean a longer sentence and not a shorter one?

An intelligent man knows whom he is dealing with, what he is doing, and what the consequences might be.

The judge also pointed out that Roche’s mother died of cancer when he was thirteen. So? Does that excuse any would be bomber who lost a parent?

Roche has 21 days to decide whether or not to appeal against his sentence. So does the prosecution. They should pray that he does and that a more sensible Appeals panel increases it to something closer to the 25 years that the prosecution asked for.

Wednesday, June 2, 2004

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2004