 MELBOURNE terrorist suspect "Jihad" Jack Thomas was in a precarious mental state ahead of his second bid for bail tomorrow, his lawyer said today.
| "Yep. Batso. A loon. Lost all contact with reality, then lost all contact with contact." |
Joseph Terrence Thomas, 31, also known as Jack, was arrested during a raid by counter-terrorism police at his Werribee home in Melbourne's western suburbs last November. The former taxi driver and Muslim convert faces charges of receiving financial support from al-Qaeda, providing al-Qaeda with resources or support to help them carry out a terrorist act and having a false passport. He was refused bail in the Victorian Supreme Court in December.
Today, his lawyer Rob Stary said Thomas should be released from Barwon Prison, where he is in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and has no contact with other inmates. Thomas requested access to an Islamic cleric before Christmas but was refused, Mr Stary said.
He was allowed physical contact visits with his children — aged three years and 12 months — for a short time once a month, but no physical contact with his wife, parents or brother.
"He is terribly distressed and I think his mental state is completely fragile," Mr Stary said.
| "He's become a complete psychoceramic. That pot is cracked!" |
"He has returned to a life to complete normality (in Australia) and then to be plucked off the street for an offence which is said to have been committed in Pakistan ... it was completely traumatic. "He has been completely traumatised by the process."
| "All he does anymore is play with his lips and his... uhhh... you know." |
|