If one is to believe the Prosecution and Police, Byron Sonne is a dangerous terrorist, though his exact plan seems to change every week. I think it is fairly evident, to a science-clueful and unbiased person, that Byron, a CISSP, licensed Private Investigator, and member of hacklab.to, would be more accurately described as a science and security enthusiast.
Take, for example, the explosives charge. It was initially claimed that the police had found an explosive and detonator at Byron's house. The detonator? A thermocouple, a component used to measure temperature -- essentially a thermometer. The explosive? This quickly became a chemistry lab that could be used to make an explosive.
Bui: "But combined those could make a bomb?"
Byron: "Yeah, but so could your car and a match."
Another example is Byron's waveguide, described as the key motivation for the search on Byron's house. Officer French, the author of the affidavit for the search, seems to have believed that it could permanently destroy the radio waves -- in the warrant, he went into more detail, explaining that "This is used to send out sound waves that disrupts (sic) communication channels and can destroy them permanently". The sheer scientific illiteracy in such claims being taken seriously is deeply disturbing.
"You're making a pie — a Byron-eat-shit pie — out of stuff that is entirely legal." -- Byron Sonne to Detective-Sergeant Bui
Byron came to the attention of the Police on June 15th as a"suspicious male" filming and taking pictures of the G20 security fence. A high-priority call was put out, and Byron was stopped by Constable Simon, who positioned Byron between the front of his car and himself, in the view of his vehicle's camera. Constable Simon was soon joined by Constables Coffin and Wong, who used their bikes to box in Byron. The officers questioned Byron, who refused to identify himself, asserting his right to not do so. In response, the Police threatened to charge him with jay-walking (despite having, the officers have admitted, no grounds), allowing them to arrest him if he did not identify himself. At this point, Byron identified himself. Read More...
Byron has been found innocent on all counts!!!
You can read the verdict (it will be on github as soon as I have an OCR/nicer copy). The verdict was made on the 15th. The Crown has 30 days to appeal.
These notes on Byron Sonne's Trial are (primarily) the notes of Christopher Olah.
Please Note that Christopher is:
- Not a lawyer or legal expert of any kind
- Biased towards Byron, though trying to be objective in taking notes
- Can't always hear the proceedings of the trial very well
These notes are provided in good faith but may have mistakes, especially regarding the spelling of names. They were jotted down by Christopher, frantically typing to try and keep up with the trial, with some minor spelling and grammar corrections since.
Feel free to fork and add additional notes, or correct the numerous grammar/spelling mistakes.
Byron's preliminary inquiry was under a publication ban. It is not entirely clear to what extent that ban is still in effect, but to be safe nothing regarding that is in this repository at this time.