SYDNEY, Nov 21: A Pakistani-born former medical student facing trial in Australia for training with a terrorist organisation launched a court challenge on Monday against the legality of putting him on trial for crimes allegedly committed abroad.
Izharul Haque, 22, has pleaded not guilty to one charge of training in Pakistan with a terrorist group alleged to have been Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) — a militant group fighting Indian forces in Kashmir.
Prosecutors alleged Mr Haque attended an LeT combat training camp in January and February 2003. LeT was subsequently outlawed by the Australian government.
Mr Haque was due to go on trial this year. But his lawyers applied to the Supreme Court Monday to have the charges dropped and proceedings against their client ended on the grounds that Australian laws cannot cover alleged criminal acts which have no Australian connection.
Defence counsel Ian Barker said Australian authorities were trying to use an “extraordinary extraterritorial application” of the law.
“We know of no case like this, one where commonwealth law purports to apply to the whole world, without restriction,” he said.
Mr Barker added that the indictment against Mr Haque did not specify the terrorist act in which LeT was involved, as required by legislation under which his client was charged last year.—AFP
