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24-hour watch for jailed Hanson
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Jailed former far-right politician Pauline Hanson is under 24-hour watch in prison as reaction grows over the severity of her sentence. The 49-year-old founder of the xenophobic One Nation party is being closely monitored by guards after she was sentenced Wednesday to three years jail for electoral fraud. Hanson is reported to have spent the night under observation in the Brisbane Women's Correctional Center's medical wing, after she began to shake uncontrollably. "It's not suicide watch -- she's been given medication to calm her down. She was shaking and is really disillusioned," a prison officer told the Daily Telegraph newspaper. "She seems to think it's all a bad dream that she's going to wake up from -- she's depressed and very quiet." A Department of Corrective Services spokesman said the placement was not unusual for a prisoner who was yet to complete their mental and physical assessments. Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday joined the chorus of commentators suggesting Hanson's sentence did not match the crime. "Like many other people I find the sentence certainly very long and very severe," Mr Howard told radio listeners. New South Wales Labor Premier Bob Carr also attacked the sentence saying community service would have been a more appropriate punishment. Hanson's legal team has begun appeal proceedings against the sentence and hope to have her released on bail pending the outcome of that process.
Both pleaded not guilty to the charges of fraudulently registering the One Nation party and to obtaining almost Aust. $500,000 ($330,000) in electoral funds to finance Hanson's running in the 1998 Queensland election. The pair were found guilty by a Brisbane District Court jury. In sentencing the pair, Judge Patsy Wolfe accepted that the electoral funding had been subsequently repaid but said it was essential the electoral process should not be perverted. "The crime you committed undermined public confidence in the political process," she said. Hanson's supporters group Web site likened her sentencing to the imprisonment of South African activist Nelson Mandela. Shockwaves"Nelson Mandela was thrown in jail for representing the views of the oppressed voice of South Africa. Pauline now sits in jail for following the same ideals," the site says. The former fish and chip shop owner rose to prominence in 1996 when she managed to win a seat as an independent in Australia's federal parliament after being dumped from Howard's Liberal Party. During the height of her popularity, Hanson's far-right party sent shockwaves through Asia because of its strident anti-immigration stance and its opposition to government assistance to Australia's impoverished Aboriginal population. The party's popularity peaked in 1998, winning 10 percent of the vote in national elections in 1998 and 25 percent in the Queensland state election the same year. Soon after, bitter internal infighting began to take its toll on the party, consigning it to the electoral fringes. One Nation polled poorly -- less than 5 percent of the national vote -- in the last federal election in November 2002. Hanson subsequently attempted to launch a new career promoting a country and western singer.
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