Five prisoners in the Supermax prison at Goulburn are on a hunger strike because the amount of money that can be deposited in their prison account by supporters has been reduced from a hundred dollars a week - to just fifteen dollars and fifty cents. They claim they need this money to buy Halal food, despite prison fare conforming to the requirements of the religions of prisoners.
These people are in the Supermax because they have been convicted of either planning or attempting to launch a terrorist act in this country. They are also banned from using Arabic or other Middle Eastern languages in communications with those outside prison to prevent passing instructions to continue their terrorist ambitions.
These five willfully broke Australian law and have been using financial support from their followers in this country to obtain luxury food - and there have been many attempts to smuggle in mobile phones to allow them to bypass the monitoring of prison phone calls. They claim these impositions are unfair - and are on hunger strike in protest,
In the Middle East country of Saudi Arabia a 57 year old Australian grandfather languished in prison for being in possession of alcohol - which is totally banned. It seems that this was the result of his home brewing experiment and he was caught with two cases of low alcohol beer and two cases of red and white wine.
His expectation was that he would be expelled from Saudi Arabia within forty-eight hours, as this was the experience with people previously caught with illicit alcohol. Instead, he has been imprisoned for five weeks so far - and has been subjected to twenty-eight strokes of the cane as punishment. It has been necessary for him to sell his house to fund legal representation and there are no indications how long he may be held in the country until the matter is settled.
This man who held down a job as a manager of an engineering business has been released on bail, but he is prevented by law from working and must fund his own living and livelihood until his case comes before a judge. He freely admits that he is guilty of breaking Saudi Arabia's law and his actions in brewing alcohol for his own consumption was a stupid act. The problem is that the Saudi justice system is capricious - and the severity of the final outcome is entirely unknown.
It seems strange that many people don't seem to understand that when they cross a national border and enter a foreign country they immediately become subject to the laws in place in that country. The fact that the law of their home country may entirely contrast laws in places they are visiting confers no immunity. It is also their responsibility to become aware of whatever laws are in place that so differ and avoid the outcome of breaking that law and incurring consequences.
Usually, the most the Consulate of the prisoners home country can do is to bring comfort by regular visits and make sure that the detention of one of it's citizens is being closely monitored - and kept before the attention of those in power where the charges are pending. In some cases, this may result in the authorities opting for expulsion rather than imposing a period of incarcerations, but the decision of the host country is paramount.
Those terrorist prisoners in the Supermax are constantly probing for weaknesses in Australian law and agitating to gain media exposure. The hunger strike is a gambit to draw attention and it seems that they have lost none of their fervour for causing damage to the Australian way of life - which they abhor.
In most cases either they or their parents came to Australia to escape the dangers ever present in their home countries. It seems strange that they want to impose those same divisions here that were the cause of their original home countries becoming untenable.
Fortunately, they are a small minority in the vast majority of new settlers who find Australia an oasis of peace in a troubled world !
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