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Suspected anti-Islamic State fighter should be investigated: Aussie opposition leader

Xinhua, April 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Police should investigate a former Labor official who is believed to have fought for Kurdish forces against the Islamic State, Australia's opposition Leader said on Tuesday.

Days after Matthew Gardiner, the former president of the Labor Party in the Northern Territory, returned to his Darwin home after several months abroad where he was suspected of fighting with Kurdish forces in the Middle East, Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten said Australians who visited the prohibited "declared area " of Syria and Iraq should be thoroughly investigated.

Meanwhile, leading legal experts are doubtful that the Australian government will be able to prosecute those fighting in the Syrian and Iraqi conflict zones unless the accused admitted to being there.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) detained Matthew Gardiner for questioning upon his return to Australia on Saturday, but released him without charge. Gardiner has kept a low profile since, not returning calls from various local media and refusing to make any public comments.

Bill Shorten said the AFP should investigate anyone who traveled to the zones that the Australian parliament last year declared out of bounds to Australian citizens.

"We say to any Australian who thinks they should take part in these conflict zones, don't do it. And if you return the police will appropriately investigate the matter consistent with the law, " he told Australian Associated Press on Tuesday.

"It is illegal for Australians to support armed groups in northern Iraq and Syria."

On Tuesday, a legal expert told Fairfax Media that the Gardiner case was proof that, without a confession, "it's an almost impossible task for the prosecutors" to make any "foreign incursion" charges stick.

"It just shows that a law can be impotent," University of New South Wales law professor George Williams said.

"It depends on getting evidence and getting evidence from war- torn areas is difficult at the best of times, let alone in Syria or Iraq right now." Endi