Australian policeman cleared over aboriginal death

By Staff
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CANBERRA, June 20 (Reuters) Australian authorities today called for calm after a police officer was cleared over the death of an Aborigine in custody, sparking fears of a repeat of 2004 race riots.

Senior police sergeant Chris Hurley was cleared of killing Aborigine Mulrunji Doomadgee, whose liver was ''virtually cleaved in two'' after a jailhouse struggle on Palm Island, off the coast of tropical Queensland state, in 2004.

Palm Island Aborigines rioted after the death.

''I would urge all those with an interest in the case to accept the decision of the court calmly,'' Australia's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough said.

Hurley arrested Doomadgee, 36, for being drunk and swearing in a public place. He died an hour afterwards of wounds, including four broken ribs and a punctured liver.

The death sparked riots which led to the destruction of the police station and a police barracks on Palm Island, which has a record of aboriginal disadvantage and violence since being used as a resettlement site for ''disruptive'' Aborigines last century.

It also raised questions about Australia's commitment to the nearly 340 recommendations of an independent judicial inquiry in the late 1980s into how to prevent aboriginal deaths in jail.

Only one group of five police have previously faced court over the death of an Aborigine in jail. They were acquitted in 1984 over an incident in Western Australia.

Judge Peter Dutney told the 12-member jury not to worry about the possible ramifications of the trial and consider only the evidence given to the court.

''This trial is not concerned with police in general, it is not concerned with the riots which occurred after Mulrunji's death,'' he said.

Medical experts told the court that Doomadgee's injuries could have been caused by Hurley falling on him by accident. Hurley had pleaded not guilty to murder, but last week admitted he must have fallen on top of Doomadgee in a scuffle.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said it was ''absolutely imperative'' that everybody accepted the decision of the court.

A report this month showed Aborigines were 13 times more likely than other Australians to go to prison, while black youths were 23 times more likely to be detained.

Rights groups said the trial outcome raised serious questions about black justice and the recommendations of the judicial inquiry more than a decade after their release.

''People shouldn't be arrested simply for abusing police,'' Queensland Council for Civil Liberties President Michael Cope told journalists.

The police union, which backed Hurley, said it was trying to keep tensions as low as possible after the trial.

''There will be no celebration, there are no winners,'' Queensland Police Union President Gary Wilkinson said.

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up about 2 percent of the country's 20 million population. They are consistently the nation's most disadvantaged group, with far higher rates of unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic violence.

REUTERS AGL PM1250

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