| | Update from Jason Shrieves on March 23 03:08 CET
Just a brief update to keep ya'll informed on what's going on down here with our man Beule... I visited him again last Monday and we had a little chat, and once again, he wishes everyone well.
So as you know, last year about this time we raised money and were able to change Beule's lawyer to a privately funded law firm. This was mainly due to the strange and unethical actions of his prieviously appointed "Legal Aid" funded lawyer who was part of a different law firm. The lawyer who took on the case knew that our funding was likely to be limited at some point (meaning the money would run out) and he agreed that he would try to take the case on as funded through the "Legal Aid Queensland" agency if he were awarded the case. Well, the money did run out last year in December and he applied for Legal Aid funding. In January of this year, Legal Aid Queensland rejected his application and moved to take the case "in house", meaning that they would appoint one of thier internal lawyers to handle the case. The private lawyer appealed this decision, but the appeal was also rejected. This means that once again Beule is being forced to change lawyers. the only good news is that Legal Aid Queensland will fund the lawyer, but it doesn't say much for the workload of the lawyer when up to now, she still has not had a chance to look at the brief from the court and familiarize herself with the case. I have requested to meet with her, but she is not very receptive to it, but she tenatively agreed to have a coffee sometime in the next 2 weeks. Let's hope that there is some progress soon... so far it's 1.5 years in prison without trial and likely to me much longer before something happens without external pressure.
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