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Australians risk jail to defend deported activist
Melbourne, 22 May 2007: Twenty-six supporters of deported peace activist Scott Parkin could face up to four years jail if found to have lied in statutory declarations backing the US citizen's assertion that he did nothing to threaten Australia's national security.
Lawyers for Mr Parkin will appear in the Federal Court this morning to defend his right to know why he is considered a threat to Australian national security. ASIO is appealing the court's decision to give Mr Parkin access to documents detailing the allegations against him.
The statutory declarations will be publicly released as part of a 72-page report detailing Mr Parkin's activities prior to the adverse security assessment that lead to his removal from the country in September 2005.
The report concludes that Mr Parkin's nonviolent political activity targeting Halliburton, a controversial military contractor with close links to US Vice President Dick Cheney, led to his detention and forced removal by the Australian Government in September 2005.
The report also reveals that:
- Mr Parkin's group, Houston Global Awareness, was subject to surveillance by a top-secret Pentagon intelligence agency up to one year before he travelled to Australia.
- Mr Parkin attracted ASIO's attention when his Australian visa application in May 2005 triggered an alert on the Australian Government's Movement Alert List, despite his never having travelled to Australia.
- ASIO's adverse assessment of Mr Parkin was issued days after the US Consulate warned American citizens to stay away from a peaceful protest Mr Parkin organised at the Sydney headquarters of Halliburton subsidary, KBR.
The Australian Government has consistently denied any US Government influence in the decision to issue Mr Parkin with an adverse security assessment. Following Mr Parkin's removal from Australia, ASIO head Paul O'Sullivan told a parliamentary committee "there was no consideration of any particular matter coming from abroad in [Parkin's] case".
The author of the report, Mr Parkin's friend, Iain Murray, said that the statutory declarations had been collected in a bid to counter the official secrecy surrounding ASIO's reasons for declaring the avowedly nonviolent activist a threat to Australian national security.
"If there is any reasonable basis for ASIO's assessment that Scott was somehow involved in 'politically motivated violence', then those of us who have made declarations to the contrary must be lying. This isn't just a case of ASIO vs Scott Parkin, but ASIO vs the Australian people."
Welcoming the release of the report, Mr Parkin said: "I'm no expert on Australian law, but in my country, we have this thing called 'innocent until proven guilty.'
"If my treatment is any indication of how justice works down under, then Australians who are involved in peaceful political activity have a lot to be worried about."