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A website that shows how polygraphs deceive
Atif Rafay
and Sebastian Burns:
Defamed in
Australia
Covert
RCMP tactics under fire in Australia
Oct 7, 2004
Covert police tactics developed
in Vancouver to extract confessions has come under fire in Australia
after cops there lost their bid to protect the secrecy of the
undercover methods.
Some of Australia's top cops
now say that the public disclosure of the undercover strategies
could put lives at risk and jeopardise future operations.
A Victoria Police spokesman
said some investigations in Australia had already been stopped
for fear they could be compromised by publicity about undercover
methods.
The investigation techniques
pioneered by RCMP officers in Vancouver are designed to lure
confessions out of criminals.
It involves police officers
pretending to be hard-core criminals and is played out in what
is called "Mr. Big" undercover scenarios.
One of the most significant
successes of the "Mr Big" technique resulted in confessions
from Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay, who were charged with the
triple-murders involving members of Rafay's family.
The two were found guilty last
summer of killing Tariq Rafay, his wife Sultana and their 20-year-old
autistic daughter, Basma. The victims were found beaten to death
with baseball bats in their suburban Seattle home in July, 1994.
They were killed for insurance money.
The men, both 28, will spend
the rest of their lives in a U.S. prison with no chance of parole.
Burns and Rafay fled to their
native West Vancouver after the killings which triggered a RCMP
sting investigation.
Police officers (whose identities
have been protected by the court) posed as shadowy gangsters
who at first pretended they wanted to invest in a film the young
men dreamed of making.
Later, the officers told the
suspects they were well-connected criminals and wanted the young
men to join their network. But first they had to come clean with
their respective pasts and admit to any crimes.
In a series of secretly videotaped
encounters at hotel rooms from Whistler to Victoria, the young
men admitted to killing the Rafay family. Canada eventually agreed
to deport the pair to the United States but only after securing
a guarantee that the young men would not face the death penalty.
The RCMP has a perfect record
in convicting suspects who have fallen into this trap.
The techniques made headlines
in Australia recently after The Age newspaper successfully sought
the lifting of a court ban on reporting on the undercover methods.
But the paper chose not to
reveal details of the police tactics to avoid compromising sensitive
investigations.
Victoria Police spokesman Stephen
Linnell said the force was "clearly disappointed" by
the appeal outcome.
"These investigations
have been highly successful, and they're not the sort of thing
we wanted discussed widely in public," Linnell said.
There have been at least three
recent murder convictions in Victoria based on confessions obtained
by undercover police using the method to win the confidence of
offenders.
Australian critics of the controversial
tactics claim they are unfair because they involve suspects being
questioned without being warned of their rights.
Victorian Law Institute president
Chris Dale said the covert techniques strike at the very heart
of the judicial system." It completely short-circuits the
safeguards that operate within our system to protect people charged
with crimes," he was quoted as saying.
Australian Police Association
secretary Paul Mullet said the "crime boss" technique
to solve crimes is a vital policing tactic.
Copyright 2004 The Asian Pacific
Post with all rights reserved. Reproduction of content permitted
only if accompanied with attribution to The Asian Pacific Post
and link to website, www.asianpacificpost.com.
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Another target
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Our activism
contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the
civil trial.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
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The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
Trial
set for June 15
We
know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured
affidavit from a Winnipeg cop
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A
round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada
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