Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Aussie charged with plane bomb hoax

Paola Totaro

March 24, 2009 - 10:40AM

An Australian man has been charged after a bomb hoax sparked an emergency evacuation of an Emirates flight at London's Gatwick Airport on Sunday.

Matthew Carney, 23, from Melbourne, was arrested after a note was discovered on board the flight from Dubai to London.

The note, found 10 minutes before the flight landed, allegedly suggested an explosive device was hidden on the plane.

The plane was carrying 184 passengers.

Explosive experts searched the luggage on board the plane while passengers were evacuated and interviewed by police.

Carney was charged with communicating information which was believed to be false and with the intention of inducing a false belief that an object liable to explode or ignite was present in the cargo of a plane, police said.

Carney entered no plea in court and was remanded in custody to appear again on Thursday.
This is
the second incident involving Emirates in recent days.

The tail of an Airbus A40-500 touched the runway as it was taking off from Melbourne Airport about 10.30pm on Friday.

The plane, which carried more than 200 passengers, circled Port Phillip for about half an hour while fuel was dumped. The plane then made an emergency landing. No passengers were injured and the airline is investigating the incident.

Source

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Weapons smuggled on flight

Geoffrey Thomas

March 12, 2009

TWO boys have smuggled a stolen arsenal of handguns, knives and 3000 rounds of ammunition through two West Australian airports in one of the state's most serious breaches of airline security.

The boys, aged 11 and 14, packed the weapons in their checked-in luggage on a Qantas flight from Karratha to Perth on Monday night.

On arrival in Perth, they retrieved the baggage and checked in for a 10.55pm Jetstar flight to Cairns, where they were arrested after landing at 4.10am on Tuesday.

Qantas has admitted that "explosive trace detection" X-ray machines failed to pick up the ammunition.

The 14-year-old, who allegedly stole the weapons and ammunition from a shop in Karratha, has been charged and will face the Weipa Children's Court on Tuesday.

Federal police were tipped off about the theft by Karratha officers. They intercepted the boys and their luggage at Cairns airport where they were waiting to board a flight to Weipa.

Their baggage also contained a Ruger revolver, a .22-calibre pistol, 14 knives and other weapons.

The West Australian Police Minister, Rob Johnson, said: "If that is substantiated, I would certainly have some discussions with the minister and those people with responsibility for security at our airports."

A Qantas spokesman told The West Australian it was aware of the incident but there was "absolutely no flight security threat".

Because one of the boys was aged under 13, Qantas and Jetstar staff chaperoned the boys throughout their journey.

Source

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Court OK with using covert evidence

Catharine Munro

March 5, 2009

THE High Court has approved the use of secret evidence in a surprise decision, provoking calls for a charter of rights to ensure fair trials.

In a decision that could pave the way for similar laws in NSW, the seven judges agreed unanimously that the South Australia Police could present secret criminal intelligence to a judge to stop a liquor licence being issued.

Constitutional lawyers and civil libertarians criticised the decision. "This is Alice in Wonderland stuff: you have the verdict and then the trial," said Cameron Murphy, the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties.

In 2005, Genargi Krasnov, a nightclub owner, failed to get a licence for a karaoke bar in Adelaide's central business district, even though his criminal record consisted only of traffic offences. Mr Krasnov went all the way to the High Court to challenge the powers of the South Australia Police after they gave criminal intelligence to the courts. He was not given the chance to see the police file or defend himself against it.

"I think it's a worrying decision," said the constitutional law expert Professor George Williams, of the University of NSW. "Normally judges are very jealous in guarding the concept of natural justice. They go out of their way to ensure people affected get all the information."

At Mr Krasnov's first appeal, in the Licensing Court of South Australia, Judge Paul Rice said he was working with "draconian" laws when he received secret evidence from witnesses. But the High Court disagreed.

The Chief Justice, Robert French, quoted Hansard to say that the laws were designed to stop the infiltration of organised crime into the liquor and hospitality industry because the current laws were not strong enough. He said the integrity of the court would not be weakened because judges could choose whether or not to accept police information.

But a senior barrister, who did not wish to be named, said judges did not have the resources to test police intelligence.

The decision, handed down last month, caught constitutional lawyers by surprise. Terry O'Gorman, the national president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, said prescribing the right to a fair trial in a bill of rights would prevent such laws.

Mr O'Gorman said: "This case highlights the necessity for a charter of rights." He said that even a lawyer for a suspected terrorist was allowed to see the evidence against the defendant when police apply for a controversial control order.

Source

Latest police weapon: a secret search

Geesche Jacobsen

Crime Editor

March 5, 2009

NEW powers to secretly search homes and computers of people suspected of crimes ranging from murder to organised theft are wider than those now used against suspected terrorists.

The new covert search warrants would give police up to three years to delay informing targets they had carried out a raid on their property.

Standard search warrants, routinely issued by magistrates in closed hearings, require police to inform the target at the start of the raid.

Figures obtained by the Herald show that last financial year lower courts issued about 6600 search warrants to NSW police and other law enforcement agencies - an average of 18 a day.

Only about 300 applications were refused.

The proposed covert laws became necessary after the Supreme Court found in 2007 that three covert searches on a children's author suspected of drug offences had been unlawful.

The Council for Civil Liberties and the Law Society warned that the new laws could lead to an abuse of police powers and restrict the rights of citizens.

But the Premier, Nathan Rees, said: "If you are a serious criminal you should be very anxious. We now will have the power to enter your home without you knowing and collect evidence for subsequent prosecutions."

The new powers are to cover indictable offences carrying a maximum seven-year prison term and involving drugs, firearms or explosives, money laundering and fraud, violence causing grievous bodily harm, murder, destruction of property, organised theft, corruption, kidnapping, sexual offences or computer crime.

The covert search warrants would be approved by designated Supreme Court judges, who must hold reasonable suspicions that evidence of the alleged offence is at the home, or will be there within 10 days, and that it is necessary to search without the resident knowing.

The new laws would allow officers to impersonate another person while executing the search warrant and "do anything that is reasonable" to conceal the covert raid. However, the judges also have to consider the target's privacy.

The president of the Law Society, Joe Catanzariti, said it opposed the concept of covert search warrants. "The requirement for notice of an intended search is an important safeguard and in its absence the potential for abuse is extreme.

"[It] seriously undermines the balance between the state's right to investigate and prosecute crime and the rights of individuals to carry out their proper business and lives without fear of intrusion by the state."

Stephen Blanks, the secretary of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said police had enough powers. "Police will be opening themselves up to allegations that they have planted evidence or tampered with evidence when they are conducting searches without any independent supervision," he said.

Powers granted for suspected terrorists were being extended, showing the need for a human rights bill, he argued.

The Police Minister, Tony Kelly, said the NSW laws would grant police up to seven days to examine data from computers, whereas federal laws, aimed at terrorists, grant only 72 hours.

The proposed laws provide for reports on covert search warrants to Parliament and the Ombudsman. Mr Blanks also called for oversight by a public interest monitor, as in Queensland.

The Police Association's vice-president, Sergeant Scott Weber, said the powers were "a much needed tool … in the fight against organised crime".

Source