By Zanny Begg
Stephen Harris is an Australian citizen currently facing extradition to Argentina to serve a five-year prison sentence. His case goes to a NSW Magistrate's Court on February 25.
In September 1987 Stephen Harris took a short holiday in the Americas. He booked a three-week return trip from Sydney to Buenos Aires. In Buenos Aires, however, Harris' trip turned into a "holiday in hell".
On October 6, 1987, Harris was boarding the plane to Australia when he was stopped by customs officials and arrested for a small amount of cocaine inside an electric guitar held in his luggage.
Harris was whisked away by police and held incommunicado for five days. "I was beaten each day", he told Green Left Weekly. "The police officers were very practised at this. They knew how to wear me out without leaving too many marks. They didn't touch my face. They beat the soles of my feet. They used electric shocks. They attached me to a 240-volt machine and flicked me with a bare wire wherever they wanted on my body."
After days of this treatment Harris was taken before a judge. He pleaded innocent to all charges, a plea he maintains today. "I was set up", he asserts. "I was befriended by two brothers. One of the brothers gave me the guitar as a present, which I carried into customs unaware that it concealed cocaine." The court acquitted Harris of all charges in 1989.
In the intervening two years, however, Harris endured a living hell in jail. He was first held in Unit 22, supposedly the best jail in Argentina. There he was housed in a "cell which was only 20 by 30 feet. This space housed permanently 15 to 20 people, but often there were 60 to 80. Most of the prisoners had endured similar treatment as I did."
Amnesty International documents 698 incidences of "unlawful" coercion of detainees by police units around Buenos Aires between 1984 and 1986. Despite corroborating medical evidence in 267 of these cases, no police officers have been charged. According to Amnesty, there were a further 879 further complaints of "unlawful coercion" in 1989 and 870 in 1990.
Harris witnessed many abuses of human rights. He describes two young boys with bullet wounds thrown into the cell with the bullets still in them: "They were given no medical treatment".
In January 1989 the court next to Unit 22 was fire-bombed by terrorists. According to Harris, the prison guards made no attempt to rescue the prisoners from the flames. "When the fire broke out all the guards just abandoned the building. The acting commander for the night refused to let the prisoners out."
As the fire spread, about 20 prisoners escaped and fled to the roof. "On the roof there was mass hysteria. People started panicking so much that they were running at the side of the building and leaping off." Eventually, two prisoners found a telephone cable which they strung over the side of the building. "We had to all climb down individually. Many people died that night. The prison was burnt to the ground", Harris recalls.
Harris was transferred to Unit 1 after the fire. The conditions were no better: "The place was filthy. There were no showers, no garbage bins, rotting food all over the floor, overflowing toilets. It was revolting."
Harris's acquittal in November 1989 came as an enormous relief. However, the prosecution immediately appealed, and Harris was released only on bail.
In May 1990 he heard a rumour that the appeal had gone against him and went to the Australian consulate to find out what was happening. The consul general confirmed the rumour. "Then he said to me, 'If I were you I would leave the country and do it now'." A passport was arranged and a route to Santiago and on to Australia was worked out. Within days, Harris was on the plane home.
"When I got to Sydney, I thought it was all over. I got a job. I tried to reconstruct my life. Then suddenly out of left field walked two federal police officers who arrested me. There was a warrant for my extradition."
If Harris' appeal against extradition is unsuccessful, he faces going back to the same conditions, and may now also be charged with the further offence of skipping the country under bail. Harris is also worried that Argentinean authorities maybe harder on him because he has scandalised them over human rights abuses in their jails.
Harris is also cynical about the reason he is being extradited. "The Argentineans are pushing for extradition because they are upset at how the Australian government helped me escape. The Australian government doesn't want to offend the Argentinean police any more so they are prepared to send me back".
Harris has been able to gather support from many groups. Whether he was involved in smuggling illegal substances or not, his supporters say that he has already endured enough time in Argentinean jails.
If you want to help Harris avoid extradition, contact CEFTAA at PO Box K365 Haymarket 2000.