Media fury over student held on terrorism charges

By GREG ANSLEY Australia correspondent

CANBERRA - A young medical student held on terrorism charges in Australia's most secure prison has become the centre of a glaring trial by media as the nation prepares to ratchet up security still further.

Izhar Ul-Haque, 21, was charged last week with training with the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), outlawed by the Australian Government as a terrorist group, and is being held in the Supermax jail at Goulburn, inland from Sydney.

LET has been involved in terror campaigns in Kashmir. Members of the organisation have reportedly operated in other countries.

Under tough new Australian laws - soon to be extended to include more groups - membership of banned terrorist organisations can lead to prison terms of up to 25 years.

Queensland is also about to streamline access to search warrants for its anti-terror agencies and to impose penalties of up to 25 years' jail for damaging, or planning to damage, public facilities.

Ul-Haque is accused of travelling to Pakistan to train with LET, including the use of firearms and the handling of explosives.

His arrest followed investigations by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation into the activities of alleged terrorist Willie Brigette, now in custody in France, during a prolonged stay in Australia.

Among other claims, Brigette has been accused of acting as point man for a Chechnyan bomber assigned to carry out major terror attacks in Australia.

Ul-Haque was not directly associated with Brigette, but police allege he knew a number of other Sydney-based members of LET, including one known as Abu Hazma, who had made inquiries about bulk agricultural chemicals.

Hazma has not been charged with any related matter.

Evidence presented to Sydney's Central Local Court last week included diaries seized during a search of ul-Haque's home, which allegedly related his dedication to Islam and the bid to separate Kashmir from India as well as life inside a LET training camp.

Police allege ul-Haque last year trained for three weeks at Aqsa, in Pakistan.

His arrest, the first under Australia's laws banning membership of proscribed terror groups, has sparked a battle for credibility in the media as ul-Haque's family and lawyers counter police accusations with their own counter-barrage.

Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Pakistani author and journalist Amir Rana, an expert on al Qaeda, as saying ul-Haque may have been studying medicine to become part of a LET medical field unit to care for injured terrorists.

Police had earlier told the court ul-Haque had returned to Sydney from Pakistan to continue his medical studies after being told he would better serve his cause as a doctor, not a martyr, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

In rebuttals published in weekend newspapers and dailies, ul-Haque's family and lawyers have claimed the fourth-year medical student was a young man of exceptional intelligence working too hard for his degree to be diverted by the struggle for Kashmir's independence.

In a statement reported in the Sydney Sun-Herald the family said Pakistani-born ul-Haque was a devout Muslim who had travelled overseas for the sole purpose of attending his brother's engagement.

The impending courtroom battle may be further complicated by the fact that at the time ul-Haque is alleged to have trained with LET, the group was not an illegal organisation in Australia.