In the first use of an “interim control order” authorized under the 2005 anti-terrorist legislation, the Federal Magistrates Court ordered a terrorist suspect, Joseph Terrence Thomas, to stay within the city of Melbourne and imposed an evening curfew on him. This follows a decision by the Victoria Court of Appeal to overturn his earlier convictions for receiving money from a senior Al-Qaeda member and for carrying a fake passport, on the grounds that he confessed under duress and had no access to a lawyer while detained in Pakistan in 2003. Thomas has appealed to the High Court challenging the imposition of the interim control order.
