GEOFF LAW MR
Police left with egg on face for being in lock-step with Forestry Tasmania.
MEDIA RELEASE 21 May 2009
VINDICTIVE BAIL CONDITIONS AXED
Police bail conditions locking people out of State forest, out of 22% of the state, out of the entire Florentine valley, out of great swathes of national park, and putting a young woman under house arrest were today swept away in the Hobart Magistrates Court.
Instead, the Court applied bail conditions applying only to the exclusion zone and associated logging operation in the Florentine valley.
“The vindictive bail conditions applied by the police have been replaced with something reasonable,” said long-time conservationist Geoff Law.
“The police have egg on their face for having been in lock-step with Forestry Tasmania,” Mr Law said.
“This fiasco exposes the hostility of the Bartlett Government towards conservationists and the forests themselves.”
Mr Law’s bail original conditions – applied by the police following Mr Law’s being charged for trespass in the Florentine valley – prevented him from entering any Forestry Tasmania land or premises (over 22% of the state), the Florentine valley, and any land within 5 km of the Florentine valley (which included large parts of the Mt Field, Southwest and Wild Rivers National Parks).
The replacment conditions applied by the Court are:
– to appear in the Hobart Magistrates Court on 6 July 2009;
– ‘Not go within the boundaries of the Exclusion Zone containing Forestry Coupe FO044A in the area of the Upper Florentine Valley;
– ‘Must not interfere with Forestry operations associated with Forestry Coupe FO044A’.
