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| Face off! |
July 05, 2011
AUSTRALIA NEWS – Refusing your face could pave way behind bars; this is the new law in Australia’s New South Wales. In a new law, Australian cops have given authority to take away burkas and face coverings to reveal crime suspects.
The law has stringent measures, imposing jail for up to a year or faces a hefty fine for refusing to show face. The move follows the recent acquittal of a Moslem woman who freed after a judge ruled her Islamic veil made impossible for neat identification.
Though there is no uproar in minority section in the country who has accepted the law. However, civil liberty groups have their reservation, concerning about the rising police power, which they don’t need.
New South Wales government approved the law at a meeting late on Monday. In the meeting Premier Barry O’Farrell said any person whether wore a motorcycle helmet, a burka, niqab, face veil and whatever would be accountable to state police to show their identification when demanded.
Further he expressed his respect for religions but cleared that enforcing a law needed adequate power to make the identification.
Anyone in New South Wales who refuses to show his or her identification can be fined heavy ((£3,672, $5,882), or put in lock up.
The law is welcomed by the state police, saying it would help cops to identify suspects and minimize crime rate and clarity for both public and police as well.
The Islamic Council of New South Wales accepted the move, while the Muslim Women's Association also showed “no objection certification”, albeit police must handle the situation sensitively and deploy female police officers.
Last year in a high profile case of Carnita Matthews, judge ruled that the prosecution could not prove Carnita Matthew who was sentence to six months in prison for falsely accusing a policeman to remove her burka, made the false complaint because the police officer were not able to identify her face.
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