An Australian work safety watchdog brought charges over the death of an Aboriginal elder who activists say “cooked” to death in the back of a prison van en route to jail, officials said yesterday.
The wife of the dead man, known only as Mr Ward, welcomed the prosecutions, which came after government lawyers declined to lay charges over his 2008 death from heatstroke in the sweltering outback of Western Australia state.
Occupational safety body WorkSafe Western Australia brought four charges against the state prisons department, the transport company that operated the van and against the two drivers who were transporting the prisoner, a spokeswoman said.
“The finalization of these charges is an important step in an intensive WorkSafe investigation that has taken place over the past six months,” WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said. “The investigation into the tragic death of Mr Ward was a significant and complex one involving extensive resources.”
The 46-year-old elder died in temperatures of up to 50oC as he was driven four hours across the state to face a drink--driving charge in a van with broken airconditioning.
Frustrated Aboriginal activists who monitor deaths in custody last year expressed anger that no one had been charged after the indigenous elder was “cooked alive.”
WorkSafe’s case alleges that the state Corrective Services Department did not adequately maintain the van and that the private security company, G4S, failed to ensure the elder was not harmed by the conditions. The two drivers were charged with failing to take reasonable care to avoid having an impact on the prisoner’s health.
The prisons department and the security company each face maximum penalties of A$400,000 (US$398,500), while the drivers each face a fine of up to A$20,000.
The dead man’s wife said she was happy charges had now been brought.
“It will help me and my family deal with the pain a little better,” his wife said in a statement, adding that the charges had been “a long time coming.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing