High-profile Operation Ironside accused refused bail after 540 days in solitary confinement

A man who’s been locked up in isolation for 22 times longer than the UN’s agreed maximum has failed in his bid for release – but the judge will not say why.

A high-profile Operation Ironside-accused who spent 22 times the United Nations-mandated maximum for time in solitary confinement has been refused release on bail.

The man – whose time in solitary breached rules set down by the international community in the wake of Nelson Mandela’s confinement in South Africa, according to his lawyer – appeared in the District Court on Monday to learn the outcome of his bail application.

Judge Emily Telfer refused the man bail and suppressed her reasons for refusal.

Last week, the court had heard the former bikie – the target of an alleged kill plot – spent 540 days in isolation.

In that hearing, prosecutors opposed the man’s release – noting a rival syndicate that wanted him dead was “unlikely to have forgiven and forgotten” their differences.

The man, whose name is suppressed, applied for bail for the first time in nearly two years.

He was arrested on June 7, 2021 along with hundreds of other people across Australia.

Since then police and prosecutors have laid dozens more charges against the man including high-level drug dealing and money laundering offences.

He is alleged to have been at the apex of a large organised crime group that intersected with other syndicates controlling the methamphetamine trade in South Australia.

Martin Anders, for the man, last week told Judge Telfer his client had since been released from solitary confinement and placed in the general population.

However, the court heard the man’s mental health had suffered while in solitary for one year, seven months and three days.

“He has literally lived in constant vigilance and fear for his life for a period of years,” Mr Anders said.

“And that of course is a circumstance that’s constantly exacerbated in the custodial setting.

“Living in the shadow of a credible threat made by those capable of fulfilling that threat of taking his life.”

Mr Anders said the United Nations protocols on imprisonment dictated that solitary confinement should not last for more than 15 days in a row. The court heard the protocols were known as the “Nelson Mandela rules”.

A prosecutor told the court while the threat against the man’s life had diminished, it had not disappeared entirely.

“There was another aspect of the motivation that has not fallen away in my submission, and that is this: there was a perception that the accused at the relevant time was undercutting the drug trafficking (of another group),” she said.

“They suspected he was running his own business or syndicate – which has since been confirmed.

“That might not be something that in a sense has been forgiven simply because they have all been arrested and charged under Operation Ironside.”

Originally published as High-profile Operation Ironside accused refused bail after 540 days in solitary confinement