Lawyers for Jack Thomas will appeal to the High Court to prevent him being re-tried on terrorism charges. The Victorian Court of Appeal this week dismissed an appeal by his lawyers and ruled the former Melbourne taxi driver, who once styled himself Jihad Jack, should be re-tried.Thomas, 35, was cleared of terror charges in 2006, but the court directed he be re-tried on the same two counts following statements he made in an interview aired earlier that year on the ABC's Four Corners program. The Court of Appeal agreed statements Mr Thomas made in the interview could support a conviction on both counts. However, Mr Thomas' lawyers challenged the re-trial order arguing the Crown would have known about the interview during the first trial and it did not therefore offer any fresh evidence.
Today, Mr Thomas' lawyers indicated during a mention hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court they were pursuing their legal rights. As part of the first step in the process, they must make an application to the High Court seeking leave to appeal the re-trial order. The Court of Appeal ordered Mr Thomas be re-tried on one count of accepting money from terrorist organisation al-Qaeda and one count of possessing a false Australian passport.
Mr Thomas was sentenced in March 2006 to a maximum five years for receiving funds from terror group al-Qaeda and holding a false passport. But his convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in August, 2006, after it ruled Mr Thomas's interview with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in Pakistan in 2003 – the key prosecution evidence – was inadmissible.