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Supreme Court judge Peter Applegarth slams process at heart of State Government bikie crackdown

A ONE-TIME Finks "Terror Team" member has landed the first legal blow to the Newman Government's harsh new prison regime for bikies.

Supreme Court Judge Peter Applegarth yesterday slammed the process at the heart of the clampdown which landed Yassar Bakir, a model prisoner due for release next month, in solitary conditions "fit for a dog".

Bakir, 39, was in 23-hour-a day lockdown and just hours from being sent to a high security, bikies-only jail in Woodford when his lawyers won an injunction last week.

Justice Applegarth yesterday blasted the decision of a prisons boss to make the "safety order" against Bakir simply because police had "ticked a box" on a form saying he was still a Fink.

 Justice Peter Applegarth has slammed the treatment of a prisoner under the state's new anti-b...

Justice Peter Applegarth has slammed the treatment of a prisoner under the state's new anti-bikie laws.

He said there was no evidence before him the club - which reportedly patched over to the Mongols - even still existed.

Lawyers for Bakir say their client - jailed since 2010 for importing "fantasy" - has had no contact with the Finks since 2006.

Queensland Corrective Services operations manager Peter Shadwick admitted to making no further queries, either through his own intelligence unit, or to Bakir himself, before making the order.

Justice Applegarth said this was "unjustifiable and a flagrant denial of natural justice and not possibly made by any reasonable decision maker".

"How could it not be an abuse of power to put someone in solitary confinement in the circumstances with uncontested evidence, without any apparently reliable information to support the proposition that he was a member of the Finks - or if he was that therefore he posed a danger to the safety and welfare of the jail?"

The Judge ordered Bakir be released back into low security accommodation ahead of a "criminal organisation segregation order" that could still see him sent to Woodford.

He mocked the Government's policy of "segregating" gang members by putting them together in a single jail "where all the bikies are".

 

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