Judgment looms for LA four

The last four "parliament invaders" will know next Monday (Feb19) if they are to be jailed for storming the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly on May 14, 2002.

Yesterday morning in the NT Supreme Court, Justice Southwood watched the video tape of the incident, in which 10 activists walked into the chamber holding placards, and disrupted proceedings for five minutes. The media described the action as an "invasion".

The previous day, defence lawyers argued that the five-month jail terms given to the four, Ema Birkeland-Corro, Stuart Highway and Rob Inder-Smith and Michael Lambe, in Darwin Magistrates Court in 2003, were excessively harsh.

The four others who were also charged escaped jail time by pleading guilty.

A ninth man, Gary Meyerhoff, who had been the driving force behind thegroup's legal activities, died last October from an AIDS-related illness.

The defendants are members of the revolutionary human rights group the Network Against Prohibition, which Meyerhoff formed in March, 2002.

In court, Meyerhoff was described as charismatic, energetic and inspiring, and that his "time was limited”.