Media Alert: Highway triumphant

Darwin activist Stuart Highway has become the latest Network Against Prohibition member to win an NT Supreme Court appeal.

At a brief hearing earlier today, Stuart appeared before Justice Southwood to appeal against a decision handed down in Darwin Magistrates Court last year, in which he was convicted of trespass and jailed by Magistrate John Lowndes.

But Justice Southwood quashed the decision and the fully suspended 21-day jail term.

It means that costs of nearly $600 have also been set aside.

The announcement was a huge victory for Stuart and a reward for perseverance.

Outside court he said he was glad he had proceeded with the appeal as a matter of principle.

The case – which stems from a protest at a 2004 visit to Darwin by Prime Minister John Howard – threatened to drag on when Justice Southwood ordered a retrial.

But the prosecution protested, saying it would be too expensive and that all parties agreed the matter should be dropped completely.

Stuart’s co-accused, anti-nuclear activist Justin Tutty, was ordered to do 32 hours of community work, but earlier this year beat the same charge.

Stuart filed a victims of crime assistance application, alleging assault by one of the arresting police officers, Roger D’Souza.

The application was rejected by Vince Luppino SM.

Stuart’s fellow NAPNT members, Ema Corro and Rob Inder-Smith, have also successfully appealed in the NT Supreme Court.

Stuart, who served three months in Berrimah Prison recently, faces jail again for his role in NAPNT’s Parliament action of May 2002. Stuart and other NAPNT members are currently seeking leave to appeal their convictions in this matter in the High Court of Australia.

For more information call NAPNT on 0415 162 525 (+61415162525 from overseas)