‘Any Extent’ of Injury Can Amount to Female Genital Mutilation, High Court finds
In a majority decision released today, the High Court of Australia found that a female’s genitals do not need to be ‘render[ed] imperfect or irreparably damaged in some fashion’ for the offence of female genital mutilation to be established. The...
Turkish Assault on North Syria Threatens Radical Kurdish Democracy
US president Donald Trump announced on 6 October that he was pulling American troops out of northern Syria, effectively greenlighting the Turkish Erdoğan regime’s invasion of Rojava: a Kurdish majority society, which is forged upon radical democracy and the equality...
Inmates Help Farmers by Nurturing Livestock Back to Health
It started as an idea to help severely drought-affected farmers, but it’s a programme that’s proving to have even greater benefits for inmates at the Cooma Correctional Centre in southern New South Wales. Caring for the lambs A number of...
Police Officer Who Endangered Domestic Violence Victim Avoids Prison
A police officer has received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to illegally accessing and using information from a police database. Senior Constable Neil Punchard was apparently joking around when he committed the crime of accessing the Queensland Police Service...
Attacks at Australian Mosques Continue: An Interview With ANIC’s Bilal Rauf
A man carrying a machete approached a number of worshippers on their way to the side entrance of Holland Park Mosque in Brisbane’s southside at around 8.30 pm last Wednesday. After being alerted to his presence, the congregants rushed inside...
Punishment vs Rehabilitation in the Criminal Justice System
John has had a busy week fishing, looking after horses, and pruning his fresh crop of vegetables, so he’s quite pleased to retire to his room alone, and watch some television before bed. Without context you’d assume John was an...
The Crime of Poisoning in New South Wales
After one of the biggest medical disasters in our nation’s history, Australia’s ‘Thalidomide babies’ are still waiting for an apology and promised compensation. Who are Australia’s Thalidomide babies? Thalidomide babies were born in the late 1950s and early 1960s., when...
Sydney Criminal Lawyers® Weekly Rundown – Articles from 7 to 13 October 2019
In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a rundown of the past week’s articles: NSW Government’s Relentless Attack on Our Right to Protest The new legislation is just the latest in a suite of laws which criminalise dissent. Click...
Free Jock Palfreeman From Arbitrary Post-Release Detention
Jock Palfreeman has been unlawfully detained in Busmantsi Detention Centre in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia since 19 September. The Sydney man has served 11 years in prison for a murder that many believe was an act of self-defence, a...
Testifying to West Papuan Atrocities: An Interview With Academic Jason MacLeod
Widespread civil unrest broke out in Indonesian-occupied West Papua on 18 August. And it continues on to this day. In the region that’s been under the repressive rule of Jakarta since 1963, the mass protests were sparked by racist attacks...
