Victorian Police Arrest Brian Fyffe Again !

OVOP made application on 17 October to Mary Robinson, UN Human Rights Commissioner asking for interim protection on behalf of Mr Brian Fyffe. His family are concerned about what may happen to him.

Mr Fyffe's family say that they have become the target of the Victorian Government, police and judiciary simply because of a valid claim against the government insurance office.

They say that the Victorian Government have again used police to raid the farm which government now says is government property and have arrested Mr Fyffe.

His family say that the mass media have been used to publicly discredit Mr Fyffe ( for example the story in the Herald Sun newspaper of 14th October, 2000 "FARMER PLANS OWN KINGDOM" ) in which it is alleged that Mr Fyffe had fortified his farm, was armed with a machinegun, and held his farm to be an Independent Principality exempt from all Australian Laws.

Mr Fyffe's family say this is fiction and that as regards legal argument Mr Fyffe is not educated in the law and is just in the hands of his solicitors and barristers. They feel the newspaper account most likely resulted from what the police said about the case, noting that it was revealed that in getting a search warrant issued the claim had been made in the warrant application that Mr Fyffe was armed and dangerous.

A person who claims to be an eye witness to what took place in the Victorian Court and then in the High Court the last time Mr Fyffe was arrested (and held in prison for 10 months before his trial over possession of alarm clocks that were claimed by the State of Victoria to be bomb making equipment!) has contacted OVOP. His eye witness account of what took place in the courtroom raises serious questions about the nature of the advocacy that a person accused by the State of Victoria is actually allowed to get in any Australian courtroom.

OVOP would be pleased to receive readers comments as to how Mr Fyffe can be assisted to get a fair trial in Australia.

The unfolding saga of 'due process' at law :

11 October 2000 : Special Operations armed police raid the farm and arrest Mr Fyffe .

14 October : The Herald Sun reports the raid to arrest Mr Fyffe was "without incident" and also report "Police allege an Israeli-made Uzi machinegun was mounted at the front door of Mr Fyffe's house"  and that a handcuffed Mr Fyffe " was charged with making a threat to kill and multiple firearms offences in relation to machineguns and pistols ..."

16 October : In the cells at Bairnsdale police station the air is bad.

19 October : Problems of access to the Melbourne Custody Centre .

26 October : The farm now guarded day and night and little hope of bail for Mr Fyffe.

1 November : A damaged telephone cable stops the bail application proceeding so frustrating efforts by family and friends to help Mr Fyffe.

3 November : No bail for Mr 'machinegun' Fyffe, who is deemed to be 'an unacceptable risk'.

4 November : So Mr 'machinegun' Fyffe is now well and truly locked up awaiting trial ( his farm can now be sold with him out of circulation) and then the police reveal he never had machineguns after all, dropping those charges, according to the Herald Sun.

13 November : A denial of medication and medical attention. Mr  Fyffe is clearly being judged guilty prior to any trial. He is ill (he suffers from heart trouble and diabetes) but he has no rights since his requests to see a doctor are refused. OVOP again pleads for UN protection to be extended to Mr Fyffe to no effect and the top Australian human rights body HREOC says it is prevented by law of assisting over any actions of a court that may breach human rights.

20 December : No bail, Mr Fyffe now to be kept locked up without trial until at least March 2001.

6 February 2001 : OVOP contacts all Victorian MPs to put them on notice as to what the state of Victoria is doing to Mr Fyffe.

16 February 2001 : Mr Fyffe's daughter informs OVOP of her letter to a third party who has expressed interest in the case and to a newspaper seeking to let the public know via a full account written by Mr Fyffe of the case and how it started with an insurance claim following a fire in 1982.

3 March 2001 : Mr Fyffe's daughter is refused access by the Melbourne Magistrates Court to the Judgments of Hannon and Lewis dispite having the correct authority. OVOP writes to MPs

7 May 2001 : The Magistrate's court hearing delayed as the prison authorities forgot to bring Mr Fyffe. Eventually he arrives and, unrepresented, pleads not guilty to all charges. (Legal aid would l not assist unless Mr Fyffe had agreed not to give them any instructions but rather to keep quiet and let them run the case the way they wish - Mr Fyffe wishing to define what advocacy he was to get would not agree to these conditions and so was forced to try to self represent.