Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

When after a brief adjournment, during which I cleared the table and
stacked away all books and carried them back into the interview room that
had been our home for the day, the three judges returned with their verdict
at the ready, it was just on 1630 hours. Justice Spender noted that Justice
Besanko’s order that had further suspended Lander’s signed original 13
May 2009 arrest warrant, which had lain dormant in the Adelaide Registry
of the Federal Court, be activated at 1700 hours. At 1633 hours he began:
Spender J: Adjourn the court, please.
Dr Toben: Your Honour, may I just say something to you?
Spender J: No. Adjourn the court, please.
… and the three judges scuttled off in apparent hurry, and I said something
about so much for following blind orders.
*******
I recall how Justice Bruce Lander on 13 May 2009 felt uncomfortable when
Barrister Perkins announced there would be an appeal because, so it seemed,
Lander saw the drama of this case designed for the media fading rapidly.
When court resumed before lunch Lander lost his measured composure that
he had held to date, and becomes impatient, something that indicates a level
of frustration only control freaks – and idealists - experience.
HIS HONOUR: Yes, Mr Perkins.
MR PERKINS: Your Honour, Dr Töben instructs me that he desires to
appeal against the sentence. I have looked at your Honour’s reasons and
will, of course, do so some more, but I understand the manner in which -
I believe, with respect, I understand the manner in which your Honour
has approached sentencing Dr Töben. The application which I made that
Dr Töben serve his imprisonment in a way which would amount to what
is described in some of the Commonwealth legislation as ‘home
detention’ doesn’t appear to have been considered by your Honour as a
step in taking away my client’s liberty, and, if I may say so with respect, an
appeal may well be one in which your Honour’s reasoning processes are
taken into account but it may be - if I may say with respect that your
Honour has not - whilst your Honour considered the option of a
suspended sentence, your Honour did not, as your Honour indicated,
consider any question allowing Dr Töben to serve the three month
sentence by way of home detention.
I understand that there is - or, I understand that there will be a warrant, as
a result of your Honour’s decision, for Dr Töben’s arrest, and it is on the
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