{"id":1455,"date":"2008-11-04T17:53:52","date_gmt":"2008-11-04T07:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1455"},"modified":"2008-11-09T21:10:31","modified_gmt":"2008-11-09T11:10:31","slug":"free-lex-wotton-rally-melbourne-friday-november-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1455","title":{"rendered":"Free Lex Wotton Rally : Melbourne, Friday, November 7"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul><strong>Update<\/strong> : Video of rally held in Melbourne, with indigenous speakers from Australia, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and West Papua. Lex was sentenced to <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1462\">six years<\/a> in prison.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/O6DtPsuy2PE&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><\/object><\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/profile.ak.facebook.com\/object3\/512\/107\/n32952863226_1563.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Free Lex Wotton rally : Solidarity on Wurundjeri land<br \/>\nFriday, November 7, 2008<br \/>\n1.00pm<br \/>\nMelbourne County Court<br \/>\nCnr of William &#038; Lonsdale Streets<br \/>\nMelbourne<\/p>\n<p>Brought to you by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.education.theage.com.au\/pagedetail.asp?intpageid=1612&#038;strsection=students&#038;intsectionid=0\">Camp Sovereignty<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Led by:<\/p>\n<ul><a href=\"http:\/\/www.austlii.edu.au\/au\/journals\/ILB\/2000\/4.html\">Robbie Thorpe<\/a> (Krautungalung, Gunnai Nation)<br \/>\nShiralee Hood (Nyoongar, Kurnai Nation)<\/p>\n<p>International Indigenous Solidarity<\/p>\n<p>Marcelo Chimbolema (executive member of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.conaie.org\/\">CONAIE<\/a>, <em>Confederaci\u00f3n de Nacionalidades Ind\u00edgenas del Ecuador<\/em> \/ Indigenous Council of Ecuador)<br \/>\nMarisol Salinas (Mapuche Nation)<br \/>\nEduarado Issa Flores (National Coalition for the Defense of Workers&#8217; Organisations, Water, Basic Services, Environment and Life, Bolivia)<br \/>\nSina Brown (Aotearoa Te Ata Tino Toa)<\/p>\n<p>Liz Thompson (Free Lex Wotton NOW)<\/ul>\n<p>Note that this rally is part of an &#8216;International Day of Action&#8217; called by Lex\u2019s family members, and coincides with the day that Lex Wotton is scheduled to have a sentence hearing in Townsville (Queensland); the rally is in support of Lex and is also intended to be a celebration of Aboriginal sovereignty. Those attending are requested to bring banners and placards in support of Lex, but not stalls.<\/p>\n<p>For more information : freelexwotton[at]gmail[dot]com : <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=32952863226\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[In Sydney : Rally outside the Sydney District Court, Downing Centre, 143-147 Liverpool St (cnr Elizabeth St), City, 1pm, November 7.]<\/p>\n<p><em>Background<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>An all-white jury has returned a verdict of <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1438\">&#8216;guilty&#8217;<\/a> in the <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1401\">trial<\/a> of Palm Island leader Lex Wotton for &#8216;rioting with destruction&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Wotton is facing a sentence of up to life in prison. He has been remanded in custody to reappear in Townsville District Court on November 7 before Judge Michael Shanahan.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict was met initially with silence from Mr Wotton&#8217;s friends and family, who have been in court every day during the three-week trial. But as the reality began to sink in, his mother, Agnes, cried out &#8216;No justice&#8217; as Correctional Services officers led Mr Wotton into the rear of the courthouse.<\/p>\n<p>His wife Cecelia, and his children, were assisted from the courtroom by friends. They sobbed outside as a crowd of around 20 supporters looked on in stunned silence.<\/p>\n<p>Later, the group braved the media scrum waiting outside the courtroom. Cecelia had to be assisted into a taxi, unable to speak and barely able to walk.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Wotton was charged after the November 2004 uprising on Palm Island, in which a police station, adjoining courthouse, a police residence and a vehicle were destroyed by fire.<\/p>\n<p>The uprising occurred after the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36-year-old Palm Island man who had been arrested for public nuisance by Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, the officer-in-charge of the Palm Island police station.<\/p>\n<p>Within an hour of his arrest, Mulrunji lay dead on the floor of a police cell, a victim of massive internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a liver that had been &#8216;almost cleaved in two&#8217; from a huge compressive force.<\/p>\n<p>A subsequent coronial inquest found that Snr Sgt Hurley was responsible for the death. It also uncovered numerous breaches of procedures by Queensland Police in the ensuing investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The community erupted on November 26 &#8211; a week to the day after the death &#8211; after they were told at a town meeting that a pathologist&#8217;s report had found Mulrunji&#8217;s death was an accident.<\/p>\n<p>After several years of fully paid leave while awaiting trial on manslaughter charges (of which he was acquitted) Snr Sgt Hurley has since received a promotion, and is now an Inspector of police working on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n<p>He received a $100,000 compensation payout from the Queensland Government for property lost in the fire, and his legal bills were covered by the Queensland Police Union and <em>via<\/em> fundraising efforts by QPS members.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update : Video of rally held in Melbourne, with indigenous speakers from Australia, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and West Papua. Lex was sentenced to six years in prison. Free Lex Wotton rally : Solidarity on Wurundjeri land Friday, November 7, 2008 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1455\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-nt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}