Bob Brown and Colette Harmsen to fight Styx Valley trespass charges
Veteran environmentalist Bob Brown says he will fight a trespass charge – along with a key fellow activist – after they were arrested in the Styx Valley earlier this year.
Tasmania
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Veteran environmentalist Bob Brown says he will fight a trespass charge after he was arrested in the Styx Valley earlier this year.
On Monday, Dr Brown, 79, appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court and pleaded not guilty to the charge of remaining in Forestry Tasmania coupe – TN062G Diogenes Spur – at Styx Road, Tyenna, on February 19.
Also in court on Monday, before Magistrate Reg Marron, was veterinarian-turned-full-time activist Colette Harmsen, 48, who pleaded not guilty to the same charge, arising from the same protest.
The pair will return to court on July 5.
The Styx Valley, which is often referred to as the Valley of the Giants, is an area of native forest near Maydena that has been home to some of Australia’s largest trees – and has long been a site of conflict between environmentalists and the Tasmanian government-owned logger.
Fellow protester Syed Ali Imran Alishah, 39, also appeared in court on Monday for a disputed facts hearing.
Mr Alishah had previously pleaded guilty to the same trespass charge at Tyenna, and also a separate trespass charge at a different location in the Styx Valley three days earlier on February 16.
A decision in his case is expected on Tuesday, after Mr Alishah disputed that his protests exposed himself and others to a serious risk of injury.
Mr Alishah has been in custody since the February 19 protest, and conducted a hunger strike while behind bars.
News Corp previously reported he instructed his lawyers to pursue the maximum punishment prescribed by Tasmania’s controversial new protest laws, which were brought in during 2022.
After Mr Alishah’s hearing on Monday, Bob Brown Foundation campaign manager Jenny Weber said Tasmania “must repeal the anti-protest laws”.
Dr Brown said Mr Alishah was a “a prisoner of conscience”.
“It is unconscionable that this harmless and intelligent protester is kept in jail any longer,” he said.
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Originally published as Bob Brown and Colette Harmsen to fight Styx Valley trespass charges
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