Iran Times – December 27th, 2011
A self-styled Muslim cleric accused of sending hate mail to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan has lost a bid in Australia’s courts to have his case dropped on free speech grounds.
Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, also known as Sheikh Haron, is facing 13 charges of offensive and harassing conduct relating to letters he sent to the widows and other bereaved relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
The letters referred to the fallen troops as criminals, murderers and killers who were fighting a war of invasion, describing one as “1,000 times worse than a pig.”
Monis, who claims to be an Islamic spiritual leader, tried to get the charges quashed in the Court of Criminal Appeal, arguing that they infringed his “implied constitutional freedom of political communication.”
But a three-judge panel led by Chief Justice Tom Bathurst dismissed his appeal. “Words which are calculated or would be likely to arouse significant anger, significant resentment, outrage, disgust or hatred in the mind of a reasonable person have the potential to,… at the very least, cause an emotional reaction in the recipient from which the recipient is entitled to protection,” Bathurst wrote.
“Such a limitation does not impose a significant fetter on political communication that would ordinarily be expected to take place in an ordered democratic society.
“And, to the extent that it does limit such communications, it is not incompatible with the maintenance of the system of government prescribed by the constitution.”
Australia has about 1,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, mentor-ing local troops in the southern province of Uruzgan, with 32 so far killed in the conflict.
The case will now be sent back to the District Court to continue.
