The ‘Abuse of Process Case’ is adjourned until 9.30am on Tuesday 22nd Dec in Hobart Magistrate Court.
ANOTHER DAY – ANOTHER NEW FORESTRY MAP!
THE FARCE THAT IS THE ‘FLORENTINE MOTHER’S DAY CASE’ CONTINUES
Yet another adjournment was ordered in today’s Magistrates Court hearing of the now long-running case of the trespass charges against 18 Upper Florentine forest conservationists. The current adjournment is part of the separate ‘abuse of process’ case that the conservationists are arguing after their trespass charges were not dropped as expected following the test case against Ms Blyth of Ellendale. Ms Blyth’s case was dismissed last September after police chose to present no evidence. Only days after Ms Blyth’s case, a mysterious new exclusion zone appeared, which police prosecutor stated on 28th September, was “unproclaimed”, and that the Police had “not been instructed to enforce.”
In another stunning last gasp effort Forestry Tasmania, only two minutes before today’s hearing, handed the Police Prosecutor yet another new forestry map that purported to show Coupe FO44A – but amazingly the Prosecutor had to lodge the map with the concession that, even with the new map, it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants had been arrested inside the coupe at all!
The case has turned into a complete farce, with Forestry Tasmania showing clear signs of desperation. Up until now Forestry has been represented by a single lawyer, but in today’s court Forestry had two lawyers flanked by their Director of Communications, Ken Jeffreys.
“It is extraordinary that this case has not been put to bed months ago,” said one of the defendants, Andrew Nicholson.
“It is abundantly clear that as all the defendants were arrested at the same time, in the same place and on the same charge, their cases, without persistent and repeated pressure and production of formerly unknown maps and exclusion zones by Forestry Tasmania, would have been dropped immediately after the Blyth decision.”
“Forestry Tasmania appears to be playing games, but thankfully the Police are standing strong, with the Forward Commander having signed an affidavit stating that he knew nothing about the supposed ‘new’ exclusion zone that the conservationists were meant to have entered.”
This whole case makes a mockery of the fact that right now at the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, Australia and other developed countries have pledged four billion dollars to stop the logging of native forests in poor countries. Here we have committed Tasmanians trying to stop third world forestry practices in Tasmania’s own forests being prosecuted.
The conservationists, mostly middle-aged Derwent Valley and Central Highlands residents, are among the 22 people who were all arrested in the Upper Florentine forest on Mother’s Day this year. The arrests took place during a rally at which more than 200 people voiced their dissent against the destruction of the World Heritage quality values of the Upper Florentine forests.
The Upper Florentine valley is virtually surrounded by Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and is largely untouched by industrial logging. The forest contains large areas of old growth forest that has been shown to be amongst the most carbon dense in the world, as well as caves containing evidence of Aboriginal occupation stretching back around 30 000 years.
Faces of the Florentine will continue to encourage fellow Tasmanians to visit the Upper Florentine forest to judge the situation for themselves. Community Information Days are being organised for 24 January and 28 February.
Andrew Nicholson www.facesoftheflorentine.com
