IMBALANCE IN THE SCALES OF JUSTICE

AUSTRALIA has been subjected to its fair share of criticism of late
for questioning, sometimes rejecting, the outcome of legal systems
operating beyond our borders. When we have reacted loudly and
passionately to perceived injustices - particularly where the death
sentence is involved - the Federal Government has been quick to point
out the impropriety of seeking to interfere in another country's
judicial processes.

Nevertheless, events in neighbouring Indonesia over the past 72 hours
do beg the question of whether Canberra sometimes errs on the side of
diplomacy when domestically, it needs to be seen to be far more
forthright in expressing the outrage of everyday Australians when
things appear to be amiss.

We know that Indonesia deals harshly with young Australians for drug
offences, evidenced enough by the high-profile cases of Schapelle
Corby and Renae Lawrence, both serving 20-year jail terms. There is
no doubt they deserved to be punished for their part in the abhorrent
crimes of drug trafficking.

But on the scales of justice, the one-month remission they each
received at the weekend for good behaviour can simply not be balanced
when considered alongside the Supreme Court's decision last week to
quash the conviction of radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for
conspiring over the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2004 attack of
Jakarta's P.J. Marriott Hotel.

Australians were targeted, and died, in both bloody acts of terror,
which claimed the lives of 202 and 14 people respectively.

The Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, says he has "no doubt
whatsoever" that Bashir is guilty and voiced his disgust at the court's ruling.

Similarly, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, presumably the
recipient of top-level intelligence to back up his claims, says
Bashir is still advocating violence and promoting an extremist agenda.

Bashir's early release from jail sparked widespread anger in itself
in Australia, but Indonesia's latest court ruling clearing him of any
involvement in these atrocities is even more distressing.