I doubt it, at least under Victorian law and, by reasonable extension as there is a degree of commonality in laws between Australian states, quite possibly in New South Wales.
The charges against him relating to the letters to families of dead soldiers had been dealt with and were not, on the criminal scale, serious antecedents which indicated that bail should not be granted.
The accomplice to murder charges, whether weak as his lawyer maintains or strong, should have resulted in bail if his girlfriend charged with the murder was bailed, although I am still mystified how anyone charged with that murder in the circumstances described in the press could be out on bail.
The sexual offences charges were not of themselves sufficient to warrant detention pending trial.
If by ‘secure facility’ you mean a prison for people with severe mental disorders, the route to them before trial is usually by a very serious offence such as what would otherwise be murder accompanied by very serious mental illness rendering the alleged offender unfit to plead. Monis didn’t come anywhere near that. If he did, some of our politicians would qualify for indefinite incarceration (Not that I’m opposed to it as some of them are clearly a little irrational, albeit untreatable, such as one who put forward the proposition that if we had “carry concealed” firearm laws then statistically one or two of the Monis hostages would have been carrying concealed and all would have been well. This mimics the response by some in America to school massacres that students and teachers should be allowed to carry concealed. That would add a new dimension to schools. My year nine geography teacher would have been riddled with bullets by most of the class half way through his first lesson, partly because he was a lousy teacher but mostly because no real boys like geography, while resolution of pupil-pupil disputes before and after school and during lunchtime would have made the gunfight at the OK Corral look like a pillow fight and Lord of the Flies look like a hippie love-in. Then again, the knowledge that Brother X could shoot us dead just for not doing our homework instead of giving us the strap would probably have produced a degree of discipline not previously achieved in schools anywhere on this planet.)
Yes, but perhaps a great deal of good will come of it, if the short term signs can grow in the long term.
There seems to be an uncommonly wide acceptance in our non-Muslim community that Monis did not represent our Muslims (ably reinforced by the Muslim community’s rather bluntly expressed, and I confess in my view a little harsh, refusal to bury him No Cookies | The Courier Mail ), which contradicts previous undercurrents of anti-Muslim sentiment.
The press is reporting condemnation of Monis by Muslim leaders, which reinforces recent reports condemning ISIS and their ilk, which I suspect has not been the case in the past so that the press fed anti-Muslim sentiment by reporting only the negative aspects.
Grass roots movements have sprung up in support of Muslims. How #illridewithyou began with Rachael Jacobs' experience on a Brisbane train although naturally there are highly intelligent and greatly perceptive people of deep analytical capacity who can see in this seemingly positive movement hugely troubling signs which merely confirm how the rest of us oppress Muslims by such condescending movements Why #illridewithyou is an ill ride | Australia | Al Jazeera
(rather like the eternal victimhood of some rabid feminists, who see men’s movements opposed to domestic violence as a devious attempt by men determined to maintain power over women by wresting control of the issue from the true believers, being lesbians who don’t much like women in heterosexual relationships who most often are the real victims of heterosexual - as distinct from female homosexual – domestic violence).
Visible signs of basic community unity by Muslims and non-Muslims in condemnation of Monis and what he represents are powerful, and widely accepted as genuine unlike some previous acts of duplicity by some local Muslim leaders.
So far, Monis has achieved, brilliantly, exactly the opposite of what he and his Islamic primitives want. It is probably the first “own goal” in the history of Islamic, and related but earlier more widely modern Arabic / Palestinian, terrorism, and certainly the best.
In his own words, ironically on Armistice Day (11 November) 2009
HE TOLD them their sons were killers and murderers. But outside court yesterday the self-styled Muslim cleric, Man Haron Monis, claimed letters he sent to the grieving families of Australia’s fallen diggers were his own version of a “flower basket” or “condolence card”.
Mr Monis, also known as Sheikh Haron, has been charged with seven counts of using a postal service to menace, harass or cause offence when he sent a series of letters to the families of Private Luke Worsley and Lance Corporal Jason Marks, who were killed in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008.
Mr Monis, of Campsie, is also charged over a letter he sent in July to the family of the Australian Trade official, Craig Senger, who was killed in the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2007.
It is understood Mr Monis sent letters to other families of dead soldiers, for which he has not been charged.
During his appearance at the Downing Centre Local Court yesterday, his lawyer, Chris Murphy, said his client was a “peace activist” whose letters had contained no threats.
Mr Monis had said the letters he sent were condolence letters with a message asking the families to pressure the Government to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This pen is my gun and these words are my bullets. Despite my poor English, I fight with these weapons, against oppression, to promote peace,” Mr Monis said.
“I love Australia. I want safety for Australia; I don’t want to be used our soldiers [sic]. I don’t want Australians to be unsafe.”
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