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| Down Under | |
| Feds won't investigate Lightfoot | |
| 2005-03-17 | |
| FEDERAL Police have no intention at this stage of investigating claims Liberal senator Ross Lightfoot smuggled $25,000 into Iraq, Justice Minister Chris Ellison said today. The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers owned by News Limited, the publisher of NEWS.com.au, reported the West Australian senator smuggled $US20,000 ($25,300) into Iraq and handed it to the Kurdish Regional Government during a taxpayer-funded trip in January. Senator Lightfoot has denied the allegations, and Woodside said it had made a donation to a Kurdish hospital but rejected claims the senator smuggled money into Iraq on its behalf. News stands by its story. Senator Ellison said police had decided not to take the matter any further after looking at Senator Lightfoot's signed statement tabled in parliament this afternoon. A spokesman for Senator Ellison said: "The AFP have looked at the statement and at this stage have no intention of launching an investigation." The decision could be reviewed if further information came to light, the spokesman said. An AFP spokeswoman declined to say whether the AFP had looked at Senator Lightfoot's statement, but said police were not investigating at this stage. "There's certainly no investigation," she said. For the AFP to investigate a matter, it must be referred to them and then be evaluated to see if federal laws had been broken, she said. "We've had no referral," she said. Prime Minister John Howard said today he was satisfied with the way Senator Lightfoot had so far responded to the allegations. If Senator Lightfoot was found to have smuggled $25,000 in cash out of Australia he could face a jail sentence, Senator Ellison said. "Under financial transactions legislation, if a sum of that amount is taken out of Australia without declaration there are penalties which are attached - a heavy fine and I believe imprisonment of up to two years," the minister said. Senator Lightfoot has admitted carrying a pistol during his study tour to Iraq in January this year. He said today he had been handed the .38 calibre firearm by Iraqi National Guard soldiers, and had taken it from them, but he felt uncomfortable with it and left it in his car most of the time. Senator Ellison said he did not know whether Senator Lightfoot had breached any laws by carrying the gun.
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| Posted by:God Save The World |
| #5 "We stand by our story" Pff. Makes me ill. |
| Posted by: gromky 2005-03-17 11:55:11 PM |
| #4 The money was in USD and there is no restriction on taking USD out of Australia, although you are supposed to declare amounts over 10K. The Oz media has been all over this, without really explaining what the issue is. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-03-17 9:43:40 PM |
| #3 Okay, I know Australia probably has laws about taking money out of the country. But is there any restrictions for giving said money to Kurds? Personally, if you want about a gazillion percent return on your investment, Kurdistan seems like a really good place to start. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-03-17 9:19:40 PM |
| #2 Is that him in the red sweater? Could he be more conspicuous? Damn! |
| Posted by: Dar 2005-03-17 2:25:26 PM |
| #1 Hopolophobes had to put the bit about the pistol in there. The Left is so damn desperate they latch on to anything. Useless chicken shits. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-03-17 9:21:47 AM |