Australian State Government Backs Bill To Require Removal of Burqa In Police Stops

In the Australian state of New South Wales, the cabinet of Premier Barry O'Farrell has approved for introduction into Parliament later this year a law that will allow police to require motorists or others to remove face coverings, such as a burqa or niqab, if police have reasonable ground to believe that a violation of law or breach of security may have occurred. The Australian reported yesterday that the move comes after a highly publicized incident in which a conviction for filing a false police report was overturned because it could not be shown that the defendant was the burqa-wearing woman who filed the report. The report falsely accused police of trying to tear off the woman's burqa when she was stopped for a random traffic breath test. (See prior posting.) Under the proposed new law, refusal to remove a face covering could lead to a sentence of up to 12 months in jail.