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Revelations on Brigitte throw doubt on Lodhi conviction
by Colin Mitchell 2007-02-07 2:19 PM +0900
Comments by a former chief of French security intelligence that Brigitte is a person of no importance who Australian authorities play on to create fear have undermined the case against Lodhi, convicted last year in Sydney on terror charges after being linked with Brigitte.
REVELATIONS ON BRIGITTE CAST DOUBT ON LODHI CONVICTION

The former French intelligence security chief at Frances’s equivalent of the CIA, Alain Chouet, has called terrorism-related charges against Willie Brigitte "weak" and that Brigitte is a "person without importance whom the Australian authorities continue to play on to create fear."

The revelations in the Australian this week (5/2/07), as Brigitte goes to trial in France, undermines the sensational allegations by Australian authorities that Brigitte was planning a terrorist attack in Australia and undermines the sensational claims about a planned attack on the electricity grid and the Lucas Heights reactor. This in turn casts doubt on the conviction of Faheem Khalid Lodhi in Sydney in June last year, since Lodhi’s conviction was partly based on his association with Brigitte when he found accommodation for Brigitte in Australia. Security agencies pursued everyone who had been associated with Brigitte. In their zeal to obtain a conviction have they sent an innocent man to jail for 20 years?

Alain Chouet, who is the former chief of intelligence security at the DGSE (Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure) was quoted in the Australian as saying this: "French justice is really tired of Brigitte. The Judicial charges are weak. I persist in believing he is an imbecile and a person without importance whom the Australian authorities continue to play on to create fear."

Brigitte has been held for 3 years without trial under France’s draconian anti-terror laws being subjected to interrogations by France’s controversial self-styled anti-terror judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, known as the "cowboy" in France for his unconventional methods in pursuing his one-man crusade against terrorists everywhere. Bruguiere has been widely criticised in France by civil libertarians and lawyers for his brutal stand-over methods in interrogating suspects and getting information. Even after 3 years being held without trial under this regime all they have been able to pin on Brigitte is falsifying some documents (for alleged Al Quaeda operatives). He does not appear to have been involved in any terror acts or plots himself ie Chouet thinks he is a minor player. The source of the warnings about Brigitte to Australia was probably "the cowboy".

The prosecution highlighted Lodhi’s association with Brigitte as implying terrorist intentions. But Chouet’s opinion supports that of Brigitte’s lawyer – that Brigitte himself had no terrorist intentions in Australia. The other evidence presented in Lodhi’s case is flimsy and falls far below evidence establishing guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt." There were no plans for any terrorist act discovered nor any bomb-making material. The allegations that Lodhi was planning to bomb the electricity grid were purely based on two schematic diagrams of the grid that he said he bought for office maps for a business. The diagrams were generalised and would have been useless for locating actual targets. When the jury were unable to come to a decision in the case after a week they were sent back by the judge to come to a unanimous verdict. In a pervasive atmosphere of fear of terrorism whipped up by the Howard government Lodhi was convicted and given a draconian 20 year sentence.

Lodhi’s conviction and sentence should now be reviewed as a matter of urgency. If the allegations against Brigitte were exaggerated nonsense serving the political purposes of the government and security agencies, as Alain Chouet claims, it is likely that so are the sensational allegations of terrorist plots in Australia against the reactor and the electricity grid and the allegations against people linked with Brigitte, like Lodhi. Members of the Sydney nine have also been linked with these alleged terror plots (one bought rocket launchers which it was alleged could have been used to attack the reactor, even though it was soon revealed the weapons could hardly scratch it!) The whole shaky edifice of accusations could come tumbling down for lack of any firm foundation. It is horrifying that our security agencies may have gone off on a deluded frolic, eager to participate in the "war on terror" and gung-ho to get convictions. It is even more horrifying if they have deliberately set out to set up and convict individuals to serve political purposes.


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Willy Brigitte Letter
by Dom 2007-02-07 5:47 PM +0900
A letter sent by Willy Brigitte removed from Australia proclaims his innocence and questions the motives behind his arrest.

The one-page handwritten letter from "Mr Willy Brigitte", postmarked in France and dated, perhaps absent-mindedly, 05/01/2003, is addressed to his Sydney solicitor, Stephen Hopper.

Mr Hopper says the letter, which refers to media reports that said that Brigitte had told investigators he was part of a cell planning to attack the Lucas Heights reactor, represents Brigitte's first direct public denial of involvement.

One paragraph reads: "I am not a terrorist, I am not a criminal, I never prepare a terrorist action against nuclear place in Australia. The media and the Australia government lie on me for justify my arrest for 'extradition' or 'expulsion'. I am innocent."

Mr Hopper, who represents Brigitte and his Australian wife Melanie Brown, said Brigitte may have had some help writing the letter but the sentiment is his.

"He's been denied a voice and yet everyone comes out and makes . . . fairly substantial allegations about him being engaged in wrongdoing."

Mr Hopper said, "My understanding from the French lawyers is that the interrogating judge didn't find . . . anything to substantiate any accusation of terrorism."



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