Drug law reform activists await appeal outcome

DARWIN — Four human rights activists facing imprisonment for a 2002 protest in the Northern Territory Parliament are awaiting an appeal decision against their conviction. The appellate judge has reserved his judgement after hearing three days of submissions from the defendants.

Gary Meyerhoff, Robert Inder-Smith and Stuart Highway, all members of the Network Against Prohibition, and Mick Lambe, the coordinator of People Against Racism in Aboriginal Homelands, were among a group of nine people who invaded the chamber of the NT Legislative Assembly on May 14, 2002.

The protest was held on the day that the Labor government's repressive “drug house laws” were adopted by the NT Parliament.

After a 16-day trial in the Darwin Magistrates Court in 2002, the activists were sentenced to 14- and 21-month jail terms.

“We’re up against a lot of vested interests”, stated Highway in his appeal on August 30, noting what he believes to be the high level of corruption in the NT police force and justice system. Meyerhoff commented that “ever since the formation of the NAP in 2001, they have hit us will all these charges in the hope that we would leave the territory or go to legal aid and plead guilty, but we're not going anywhere”.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 8th September 2004
Source: Green Left Weekly
Author: Kathy Newnam
Website: http://www.greenleft.org.au
Email: glw@greenleft.org.au