OFF THE WIRE
The New South Wales Government is staring down a legal challenge against new laws which stop people from associating with convicted criminals.ABC News revealed on Wednesday that the Nomads bikie gxxg is planning to fight the legislation as far as the High Court.
The laws carry a maximum three-year jail term for anyone caught communicating more than once with convicted criminals in person, by phone or over the internet.
Four bosses and associates of the Nomads gxxg are the first to be charged under a test case for the legislation.
They include the club's Sydney president, Jamie Zammit, and senior member Sleiman Tajjour, who is a cousin of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim and an alleged target of the gun violence that sparked the laws earlier this year.
The four men are fighting the charges. Three of them pleaded not guilty in court yesterday.
A lawyer for the United Motorcycle Council, Wayne Baffsky, says other clubs are also investigating a challenge.
"[The laws] attack people for who they are rather than for anything they've done and they're going to affect ordinary citizens at some point in time, rather than people who have been given the title of bikie," he said.
NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith is confident the legislation will withstand a challenge.
"The new consorting law is proving an effective weapon against bikie gxxg members," Mr Smith said.
"That shows that the O'Farrell legislation is working, that we've cracked down on these criminal gxxgs involved in drive-by shootings and other criminal activities.
"We've cracked down on their use of tattoo parlours, on their use of colours. We want to protect the community and the community has to be protected.
"Any constitutional or other challenge will be strenuously met and opposed."
Mr Baffsky was behind a successful High Court challenge last year against NSW laws aimed at outlawing bikie gxxgs.
He says the latest battle will be tougher.
"There's really no obvious way of challenging this law," he said.
"With the Criminal Organisations Control Act, there was a lot to work with but in this case there's only three sections and there's nothing obvious about any of the sections which can be challenged.
"On the other hand, somebody else might see something that I haven't and might be able to move forward with it."
The new challenge is being mounted by 25-year-old David Brannan, one of the Nomads associates accused of consorting.
Brannan's solicitor, Ben Archbold, is expecting others to join the legal battle.
He says all avenues will be pursued, including a High Court challenge on the grounds the laws encroach on the right to freedom of association.
The ABC understands that among the allegations, Brannan is accused of meeting with Zammit and Tajjour at the home of Sydney's Ibrahim family and again two weeks later at the Downing Centre court complex cafe.
The group plans to argue they were visiting Ibrahim's mother, Wahiba, at her Merrylands home in Sydney's west because she was ill with cancer.
Simon Joyner, the lawyer for Tajjour and the other co-accused Justin Hawthorne, says his clients want to defend the charges as far as they can.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-28/nsw-government-will-fight-bikie-laws-challenge/4097304
