What is the Justice for Jack campaign?

The Justice for Jack campaign is organising in support of Jack Thomas. Jack – dubbed “Jihad Jack” by the press – is an Australian man falsely accused by the government of terrorism. His case raises enormous questions about the erosion of basic civil liberties under the guise of the “war on terror”.

Background to the Jack Thomas case

One of the first Australians to be charged under the Howard government’s new anti-terror legislation, spent months confined in Barwon maximum security prison, in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day, subjected to dehumanising conditions similar to those at the US’s Guantanamo Bay facility.

In 2003, Jack was imprisoned in Pakistan for five months, after attempting to return to his family in Australia. Eventually, he was released without charge – no evidence linking him to terrorism could be found. He returned to Melbourne, lived and worked in the community, and tried to resume his life.

Eighteen months later, Jack was arrested again. For all of that time, security forces had monitored his movements, his phone calls, and emails but had found no new evidence whatsoever. According to the testimony of the prosecution, the case against him stood or fell on the basis of a single interview conducted in Pakistan by the Australian Federal Police, without the presence of a lawyer, two months after Jack’s initial detention.

This interview was preceded by over 100 hours of interrogation, torture and duress by various agencies including the CIA, the FBI and the Pakistan Secret Service (ISI). This evidence was put forward during Jack’s trial where Jack was not found to be a terrorist, but found guilty of charges of accepting money from a terrorist organisation and falsifying a passord.

An appeal court found that the interview should never have been admissable and all convictions against Jack were quashed.

An attack on everyone’s civil liberties

The Thomas case represents a further shocking erosion of basic civil liberties in Australia under the guise of the “war on terror”. Jack was imprisoned in an Australian jail on the basis of evidence gained by torture, and was repeatedly denied bail even though he previously lived in the community for 18 months – completely peaceably and lawfully.

Most recently, the government has imposed a control order on Jack - despite a court having quashed all convictions against him.