You have to hand it to Stephen Keim. Keim, the defence lawyer for Mohamed Haneef, the man accused of association with the Glaswegian terrorists, leaked certain paragraphs and selective quotes to The Australian, from an allegedly classified federal police interview with the accused. To quote Keim from an article on Brisbane Times ([link]),
“You’ve got leaks coming from police officers, from the same document, and the Prime Minister doesn’t complain about that,…. They’re obviously designed to suggest that the Commonwealth case against my client is stronger than it appears from the evidence.”
The basic nature of the leaks concerned an interview with the Australian Federal Police in which Haneef’s outright denied association with terrorists and terrorist activities. ([link]).
The Australian provides a well written article regarding the situation and highlights my own concern regarding the hypocrisy of the Emperor (i.e. Philip Ruddock) and Mick Keelty, the Australian Federal Police commissioner ([link]). I’m quite disturbed by Ruddock comments that these leaks from the defense, have the potential to delay the case.
Furthermore, the following extract from the Brisbane Times article is quite startling,
“The Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, yesterday warned that the public release of the police interview with Haneef could undermine the prosecution and the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, said it could delay the trial.” ([link])
My question is that why haven’t these same standards been applied to leaks that have benefitted, or potentially benefitted, the case of the prosecution, at least, in the eyes of the public?
I praise Keim for taking such a move. He is definitely correct in his assumption, this is definitely in the public interest, and shows how heavy handed the government conducts on behalf of the ‘national interest’ (an ideal that I would think very hard to define!).
On a lighter note, I have oft discussed with my housemates and other acquaintances whether Philip Ruddock was some kind of relation of Emperor Palpatine of Star Wars fame. Today, I uncovered a url which discusses the similarities between Ruddock and Palpatine, and concludes with,([link])
“[Ruddock] is a gnarled, old man with pale, pallid skin, and searing, sickly yellow eyes. He is Palpatine!”
Case closed.