The Boston Globe - 02.08.2019

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019 The Boston Globe TheWorld A

By Rod McGuirk
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CANBERRA, Australia —
The Australian government in-
troduced legislation to Parlia-
ment on Thursday that would
give authorities more power to
keep extremists behind bars af-
ter they have served prison sen-
tences if they are still consid-
ered dangerous.
The move is a response to a
2017 siege in which a gunman

who once trained with Muslim

extremists, Yacqub Khayre,

killed a Melbourne apartment

building receptionist and

wounded three police officers

months after being released

early from prison.

The bill has been introduced

as the government is accused of

trampling human rights and

press freedom by ratcheting up

its national security laws in re-

sponse to the evolving threat

posedbyMuslimextremists

such as the Islamic State group.

The federal and state gov-

ernments agreed in late 2015 to

create nationally consistent so-

called continuing detention or-

ders to keep convicted terror-

ists in custody after they have

served their sentences.

Attorney General Christian

Porter said the proposed new

law would close a loophole that

prevented some extremists

from being kept in custody. The

law would create a presumption

against parole for convicted ter-

rorists and terrorist supporters.

Khayre, a Somali-born refu-

gee, took a woman hostage dur-

ing a two-hour siege that ended

with him being killed by police.

The hostage escaped harm.

His convictions were for vio-

lent crimes unrelated to ex-

tremism. But under the pro-

posed law, a judge deciding

whether to parole him could

have considered Khayre’s ac-

quittal in 2010 on charges that

he plotted a suicide attack on a

Sydney army base and evidence

that established during his trial

that he had trained with ex-

tremists in Somalia.

Porter told Parliament the

laws would apply to those in-

mates serving time for other of-

fenses, but who have ‘‘clearly

demonstrated terrorist sympa-

thies.’’

‘‘The community was rightly

outraged by Yacqub Khayre’s

case and I believe the changes

we are introducing today strike

the right balance between pro-

tecting individual rights and

freedoms, and protecting the

community,’’ Porter said.

Parliament also extended

the emergency powers of the

Australian Security Intelligence

Organization.

Australia proposes new law to keep extremists in prison