Lawyers donate time to help forest protestors
© 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
December 12, 2001
Conservationists claim that police are infringing civil liberties with bail conditions they impose on people arrested in anti-logging protests in a disputed forest in the state's south-east.
Two men spent last night in the police watch house at Queanbeyan because they refused to agree to the conditions set by police who arrested them yesterday in the Badja forest, north of Cooma.
The old growth forest has been declared a prohibited area by the State Forests department, with gates erected on access roads and police patrols to ensure that protesters do not interfere with logging work.
The Wilderness Society's Annie Coleman says police have refused to release arrested protesters from the Badja forest unless they agree to stay at least five kilometres from all state forests.
She said lawyers agree the condition is in breach of civil liberties.
"We have an entire floor of barristers that have come on board to do free work to represent these people," she said.
"The devastation of the forest and the infringement of civil liberties that's being carried out by the state Government is appalling," she said.