EXPLANATORYSTATEMENT

SelectLegislative Instrument 2007 No. 267

Issued by theauthority of the Attorney-General

Criminal Code Act1995

Criminal CodeAmendment Regulations 2007 (No. 12)

Section 5 of theCriminal Code Act 1995 (the Act)provides that the Governor‑General may make regulations prescribingmatters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary orconvenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. TheSchedule to the Act sets out the Criminal Code (the Code).

Division 102 of the Code sets out the offences in relationto terrorist organisations, which are: directing the activities of a terroristorganisation; being a member of a terrorist organisation; recruiting persons toa terrorist organisation; receiving training from or providing training to aterrorist organisation; being an associate of and receiving funds from ormaking available funds, support or resources to a terrorist organisation.

Section 102.9 of the Code provides that section 15.4(extended geographical jurisdiction - category D) applies to an offence againstDivision 102 of the Code. The effect of applying section 15.4 is that offencesin Division 102 of the Code apply to conduct (or the results of such conduct)constituting the alleged offence whether or not the conduct (or the result)occurs in Australia.

�Terrorist organisation� in subsection 102.1(1) of the Codeis defined as:

�       an organisation directly or indirectly engaged in, preparing,planning, assisting in or fostering the doing of a terrorist act (whether ornot a terrorist act occurs) (paragraph (a)); or

�       an organisation specified in the regulations (paragraph (b)).

The purpose of the Regulations is to amend theCriminalCode Regulations 2002 to specify Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT / LT) also known asal Mansooreen, al Mansoorian, Army of Medina, Army of the Pure, Army of thePure and Righteous, Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq, Jama'at al-Dawa, Jama'at-i-Dawat,Jamaati-ud-Dawa, Jamaat ud-Daawa, Jama'at-ud-Da'awa, Jama'at-ud-Da'awah,Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Jama�at ul-Da�awa, Jamaat-ul-Dawa, Jamaat ul-Dawah, Jamaiat-ud-Dawa, JuD, JUD, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Toiba,Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-i-Toiba, Lashkar‑Tayyiba,Paasban-e-Ahle-Hadis, Paasban-e-Kashmir, Paasban-i-Ahle- Hadith, Party of theCalling, Pasban-e-Ahle-Hadith, Pasban-e-Kashmir, Soldiers of the Pure, the Armyof the Righteous, and the Party of Preachers for the purpose of paragraph (b)of the definition of �terrorist organisation� in subsection 102.1(1) of theCode.

LeT was initially listed as a terrorist organisation undertheCriminal Code Amendment Regulations 2005 (No.10) which took effecton 9 November 2003.

LeT was re-listed as a terrorist organisation under theCriminalCode Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 11) which took effect on 5 June 2005and was re-listed byCriminal Code Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 13)which took effect on 7 October 2005.



The Regulations enable the offence provisions in Division 102 of the Code toapply to persons with links to LeT. Details of the Regulations are set out inAttachmentA.

Paragraph 102.1(2) of the Code provides that before theGovernor-General makes regulations specifying an organisation for the purposesof paragraph (b) of the definition of �terrorist organisation� in subsection102.1(1) of the Code, the Minister must be satisfied on reasonable grounds thatthe organisation is engaged in, preparing, planning, assisting in or fosteringthe doing of a terrorist act (whether or not a terrorist act has occurred orwill occur).

In determining whether he is satisfied on reasonable groundsthat the organisation is engaged in, preparing, planning, assisting in orfostering the doing of a terrorist act, the Minister takes into considerationunclassified Statements of Reasons prepared by the Australian SecurityIntelligence Organisation (ASIO) in consultation with the Department of ForeignAffairs and Trade, as well as advice from the Australian Government Solicitor. The Statement of Reasons in respect of LeT is atAttachment B.

Subsection 102.1(2A) of the Code provides that before theGovernor-General makes a regulation specifying an organisation for the purposesof paragraph (b) of the definition of �terrorist organisation� in subsection102.1(1) of the Code, the Minister must arrange for the Leader of theOpposition in the House of Representatives to be briefed in relation to theproposed regulation.

Prior to the making of the Regulations, consultations wereheld with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, ASIO and the AustralianGovernment Solicitor. In addition, an offer for a briefing was extended to theFederal Leader of the Opposition and the State and Territory Premiers and ChiefMinisters were advised.

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposesof theLegislative Instruments Act 2003.

The Regulations commenced on the day after they wereregistered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

Attachment A

Details of theCriminal Code Amendment Regulations 2007(No. 12)

Regulation 1- Name of Regulations

This regulation provides that the title of the Regulationsis theCriminal Code Amendment Regulations 2007 (No. 12).

Regulation 2 � Commencement

This regulation provides that the Regulations commence onthe day after they are registered.

Regulation 3 � Amendment ofCriminal Code Regulations2002

This Regulation notes that Schedule 1 amends theCriminalCode Regulations 2002.

Schedule 1 � Amendments

Item [1] � Regulation 4V

This item provides that the existing regulation 4V,�Terrorist organisations � Lashkar‑e-Tayyiba (LeT / LT)�, is to be substitutedwith the new regulation 4V.

Subregulation 4V(1) provides that for paragraph (b) of thedefinition of �terrorist organisation� in subsection 102.1(1) of theCriminalCode Act 1995 (the Code), the organisation known as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT/ LT) is specified.

The effect of this subregulation is that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba(LeT / LT) is specified as a terrorist organisation under subsection 102.1(1)of the Code.

Subregulation 4I(2) provides that for the purposes ofsubregulation (1),

Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT / LT) is also known by the following names:

(a)   al Mansooreen;

(b)  al Mansoorian;

(c)   Army of Medina;

(d)  Army of the Pure;

(e)   Army of the Pureand Righteous;

(f)    IdaraKhidmat-e-Khalq;

(g)   Jama'at al-Dawa;

(h)   Jama'at-i-Dawat;

(i)     Jamaati-ud-Dawa;

(j)    Jamaatud-Daawa;

(k)  Jama'at-ud-Da'awa;

(l)     Jama'at-ud-Da'awah;

(m) Jamaat-ud-Dawa;

(n)   Jama�at ul-Da�awa;

(o)  Jamaat-ul-Dawa;

(p)  Jamaat ul-Dawah;

(q)  Jamaiat-ud-Dawa;

(r)    JuD;

(s)   JUD;

(t)    Lashkar-e-Taiba;

(u)   Lashkar-e-Tayyaba;

(v)   Lashkar-e-Toiba;

(w) Lashkar-i-Tayyaba;

(x)   Lashkar-i-Toiba;

(y)   Lashkar-Tayyiba;

(z)   Paasban-e-Ahle-Hadis;

(za)Paasban-e-Kashmir;

(zb)Paasban-i-Ahle-Hadith;

(zc) Party ofthe Calling;

(zd)Pasban-e-Ahle-Hadith;

(ze)Pasban-e-Kashmir;

(zf) Soldiersof the Pure;

(zg) the Armyof the Righteous;

(zh) theParty of Preachers.

ATTACHMENT B

Lashkar-e-Tayyiba(LeT/LT)

Also known as: Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Toiba,Lashkar-i-Toiba, Lashkar-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, theArmy of the Righteous, Army of the Pure, Army of the Pure and Righteous,Soldiers of the Pure, Army of Medina, Jama�at ul-Da�awa, JuD,Jamaat-ud-Dawa, JUD, Jama'at al-Dawa, Jamaat ud-Daawa, Jamaatul-Dawah, Jamaat-ul-Dawa, Jama'at-i-Dawat, Jamaiat-ud- Dawa, Jama'at-ud-Da'awah, Jama'at-ud-Da'awa, Jamaati-ud-Dawa, and Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq,the Party of Preachers, Party of the Calling,alMansoorian, al Mansooreen, Paasban-e-Kashmir, Paasban-i-Ahle- Hadith,Pasban-e-Kashmir, Pasban-e-Ahle-Hadith, Paasban-e-Ahle-Hadis.

The following information is based onpublicly available details about Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). These details have been corroborated by material fromintelligence investigations into the activities of the LeT. ASIO assesses thatthe details set out below are accurate and reliable.

LeT is listed in the United Nations 1267Committee�s consolidated list and as a proscribed terrorist organisation by thegovernments of Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Pakistan andIndia.

Current status of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba

LeT is aSunni Islamic extremist organisation based in Pakistan. LeT was formed circa1989 as the military wing of the Pakistan-based Islamic fundamentalist movementMarkaz al-Dawa wal Irshad (MDI � Centre for Religious Learning and Propagation;also known as the Jamaat al-Daawa). Originally formed to wage militant jihadagainst the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, LeT shifted its focus to theinsurgency in Indian administered Kashmir (IAK) when Soviet troops withdrewfrom Afghanistan in the early 1990s. LeT is one of the largest and most brutalof the Pakistan-based militant groups active in Kashmir. LeT has conductednumerous attacks, including bombings, assassinations and kidnappings againstIndian security forces (military and police), government, transport andcivilians in IAK, as well as in India. The group is also credited withintroducing the use of suicide squads to the conflict in IAK. In 2002, LeT wasbanned by the Pakistan government but the group continues to operate inPakistan under the alias Jamaat ud-Dawa (JuD). Ostensibly created as acharitable organisation by LeT founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed immediately priorto LeT being banned, JuD is an LeT front organisation, masking its activitiesand soliciting its funds.

LeTsubscribes to a Salafist interpretation of Islam which has similarities to theWahhabi form of Islam associated with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. LeT receivesfunding from donors in the Middle-East (mainly Saudi Arabia), and throughcharitable donations collected from sympathisers in Pakistan, Kashmir, theUnited Kingdom and Persian Gulf states. LeT maintains links to the Taliban andal-Qa'ida, and to several domestic Islamic extremist groups, including theKashmir focused terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and the sectariangroup Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ). LeT is reported to have been involved withmujahideen in other places where Islamist conflicts have arisen includingBosnia, Chechnya and Kosovo. LeT has also participated in the post-Talibaninsurgency in Afghanistan. In 2004, several LeT operatives were captured byBritish forces in Iraq.

Indian andPakistani initiatives to resolve the conflict in Kashmir have led to an overallreduction in the level of LeT infiltration and insurgent activity since 2002.However, LeT continues its attacks against Indian civilians and securityforces. While LeT does not claim responsibility for its attacks on civilians,several recent attacks in IAK have been attributed to the group by Indianauthorities, including the massacre of over thirty Hindus in two separateattacks in the Doda and Udhampur districts on 1 May 2006. The attacks occurredtwo days prior to peace talks between the Indian government and Kashmiriseparatist groups, and were condemned by India as an attempt by LeT to sabotagethe Kashmir peace process. LeT is also widely held to have been responsible fora number of significant attacks in India in recent years, including the 29October 2005 serial explosions at marketplaces in New Delhi, and the 11 July2006 serial bombings on trains in Mumbai, which killed more than 240 people intotal. While two little known groups claimed responsibility for each of theMumbai and New Delhi attacks, subsequent investigations have led Indianauthorities to conclude that LeT was behind both attacks.

While IAKand Indian interests remain LeT�s primary focus, some elements within LeT wantto re-focus their activities and bring them more into line with Usama binLaden�s �global jihad� against the US and Israel, and their allies. As membersof a previously unknown group�Jundallah,� LeT trained memberswere among a number of militants drawn from several Pakistani extremist groupsresponsible for the twin car-bomb attack near the US Consulate in Karachi on 26May 2004.On 9 June 2004,the same terrorist cell wasinvolved in a terroristattack against a heavily-armed military convoy carryingKarachi�s military commander resulting in seven deaths. In October 2006, LeTissued its own fatwa asking the Muslim community to kill Pope Benedict XVI, inresponse to a speech delivered by the Pope on 12 September 2006.

LeT operatesa number of camps in Pakistan which provide both religious instruction andmilitary style guerrilla training and support. Since being proscribed as aterrorist organisation by the Pakistan government in 2002, some LeT trainingfacilities are now smaller in scale, some of which are mobile, and focused onpreparing jihadists for either low intensity, hit and run type operations orsuicide attacks.

Reportingindicates LeT may also be helping to facilitatetraining of foreignerswho are possibly intending to conduct terrorism related activities in theircountries of origin. Investigations indicate one of the British-born suicidebombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 attacks in London, Shehzad Tanweer, mayhave received training at a LeT camp in Pakistan. LeT is also suspected ofproviding some funding and logistical support to the disrupted Britishtrans-Atlantic plane bombing plot in August 2006 using JuD as a cover. Severalindividuals with links to LeT have been arrested in Australia, the US, andCanada since 2003 for allegedly planning terrorist activities. In March 2007, aFrench court convicted French national, Willie Brigitte, of planning terroristattacks in Australia in 2003 in conjunction with suspected LeT Chief foroverseas operations, Sajid Mir. In June 2006, Brigitte�s associate in Sydney,Faheem Khalid Lodhi, was convicted by a New SouthWales Supreme Court juryof planning acts of terrorism (Mr Lodhi has appealed againsthis conviction).Aside from facilitating training, it is not clearwhether the terrorist activities of any of these foreign born individuals havebeen sanctioned by LeT or are self-directed.

Objectives

LeT is a group that uses violencein pursuit of its stated objective to unite IAK with Pakistan under a radicalinterpretation of Islamic law. LeT�s broader objectives include theestablishment of an Islamic Caliphate across the Indian subcontinent. To thisend, LeT intends to pursue the �liberation,� not only of the Muslim-majority inKashmir, but of all of India�s Muslim population, even in areas where they donot form a majority. LeT has declared democracy to be antithetical to Islamiclaw and that LeT�s jihad requires it to work toward turning Pakistan into apurely Islamic state.

Leadership and membership

The leader of LeT is Hafiz MuhammadSaeed (sometimes rendered Hafiz Mohd Saeed). Saeed has been detained andsubsequently released, by Pakistani authorities on several occasions. He wasarrested in February 2006, for leading violent protests in response to theDanish cartoon controversy and again in August 2006, in the wake of thedisrupted British airliner bombing plot.

LeT�s estimated strength isreported to include several hundred trained militants. The majority of LeT�smembership consists of jihadists from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Lashkar-e-Tayyiba engagementin terrorist activities

LeT conducts attacks in IAK on amonthly basis, primarily targeting Indian security forces but also non-Muslimcivilians. Other significant attacks for which responsibility has been claimedby, or reliably attributed to, the LeT include:

�       November 2005: Car bomb attack near the main entrance of theJ&K Bank Corporate Headquarters in Srinigar which killed four civilians andinjured 72;

�       October 2005: Coordinated bomb attacks at marketplaces and on abus in New Delhi, killing over 60 persons;

�       May 2006: Massacre of Hindu civilians in Doda and Udhampurdistricts, Jammu & Kashmir, killing 34 civilians;

�       May 2006: Attack on a Youth Congress rally at Sher-e-Kashmir Parkin Srinigar, killing three political activists and two police officers;

�       June 2006: Joint responsibility with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) forthe kidnap and killing of seven Nepalese civilians and one Indian civilian inKulgam, Jammu & Kashmir;

�       July 2006: Serial bombings on trains in Mumbai, killing more than200 persons; and

�       February 2007: Attack on a Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF)patrol party, killing two CRPF officers.

Conclusion

The Criminal Code provides that for anorganisation to be listed as a terrorist organisation, the Attorney-Generalmust be satisfied that:

(i)                 the organisation isdirectly or indirectly engaged in, preparing, planning, assisting in orfostering the doing of a terrorist act (whether or not a terrorist act hasoccurred or will occur); or

(ii)               the organisationadvocates the doing of a terrorist act (whether or not a terrorist act hasoccurred or will occur).

On the basis of the above information,ASIO assesses that LeT is directly preparing, planning, assisting in orfostering the doing of terrorist acts. It is submitted that the actsattributable to LeT are terrorist acts as they:

(i)                 are done with theintention of advancing a political cause, namely,�liberating� Muslims inIndian-administered Kashmir and the establishment of an Islamic Caliphateacross the Indian subcontinent.

(ii)               are intended tocoerce or influence by intimidation the government of a foreign country, namelyIndia, and/or intimidate a section of the Indian public; and

(iii)              constitute acts whichcause serious physical harm to persons, including death, as well as seriousdamage to property.

This assessment is corroborated byinformation provided by reliable and credible intelligence sources.