The first man to be convicted under Australian anti-terrorism laws was ordered to face a re-trial yesterday, four months after an appeals court freed him.

Joseph Terrence Thomas, nicknamed "Jihad Jack" by Australian media, was jailed for five years in April on charges of receiving US$3,500 and a plane ticket from an al Qaida agent after training with Osama bin Laden's network in Afghanistan in 2001.

But he was freed on August 18 when an appeals court quashed the former taxi driver's conviction, saying an interview with Australian police in Pakistan was inadmissible evidence because it was not voluntary.

The same court yesterday agreed with Australia's public prosecutor that a television interview in which Thomas admitted taking money to get home could have led to conviction on both charges, ordering the 33-year-old face a re-trial.

"The interests of justice required that there be a retrial, unless Mr Thomas could establish that it would be unjust in all the circumstances for him to be retried," the judgment said.

Thomas has been jailed and released three times since his capture in Pakistan in 2002 and his lawyers have argued he should not be put through more legal proceedings four years after his capture.

In a February interview Thomas admitted taking money from al Qaida and attending a terrorist training camp.

"It involved light, you know, weapons that are like Kalashnikovs, light firearms and pistols and the demolition course," he said.

At the time Thomas said he posed no terrorist threat.

(China Daily 12/21/2006 page7)