Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

CRIMES (TORTURE) ACT 1988 - SECT 6

             (1)  Where:

                     (a)  at any time after the commencement of this Act, a person who:

                      (i)  is a public official or is acting in an official capacity; or

                      (ii)  is acting at the instigation, or with the consent or acquiescence, of a public official or person acting in an official capacity;

                            does outside Australia an act that is an act of torture; and

                     (b)  that act, if done by the person at that time in a part of Australia, would constitute an offence against the law then in force in that part of Australia;

the person is guilty of an offence against this Act, punishable, upon conviction, by the same penalty as would be applicable if the person were found guilty of the offence referred to in paragraph (b).

          (1A)  For the purposes of an offence against subsection (1), absolute liability applies to the following physical elements of circumstance of the offence:

                     (a)  that the act of torture is done outside Australia;

                     (b)  that the act of torture, if done by the person at the relevant time in a part of Australia, would constitute an offence against the law then in force in that part of Australia.

Note:          For absolute liability , see section 6.2 of the Criminal Code .

             (2)  In determining for the purposes of subsection (1) whether or not an act is or was, under the law in force at a particular time in a part of Australia, an offence of a particular kind, regard shall be had to any defence under that law that can be or could have been established in a proceeding for the offence.