Former One Nation right wing lawmaker Pauline Hanson convicted of fraud
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) : Pauline Hanson, the right wing firebrand who sent shock waves through Asia with her anti-immigration rhetoric, was convicted Wednesday of fraudulently setting up her One Nation political party and illegally using electoral funds.
Hanson, 49, and another party official, David Ettridge, 58, pleaded innocent to fraudulently registering One Nation in Queensland on Dec. 4, 1997, and to obtaining almost 500,000 Australian dollars (US$330,000) in electoral funds to pay for her campaign in the 1998 Queensland state election.
A Brisbane District Court jury found the pair guilty on all counts after more than nine hours of deliberations.
She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and will likely be barred from standing again for parliament.
Hanson stared straight ahead when the verdicts were read out after earlier maintaining her innocence from the dock.
During sentencing submissions, Hanson said: "Yes, I'm still very innocent of the charges and I believe the prosecution has not proven the case against me or David Ettridge.''
Hanson then angrily snapped: "Rubbish, I'm not guilty ... it's a joke.''
The conviction looked like a final fall from grace for Hanson, a former fish and chip restaurant owner who once won a seat in federal parliament on a platform denouncing Asian immigration and welfare payments to Australia's impoverished Aborigines.
With her grab bag of populist political and economic remedies, Hanson's One Nation party won almost 10 percent of the vote in 1998 national elections and close to 25 percent in a state election in the same year.
But by 2001, Hanson's political naivete began to take its toll. She failed to win a seat in the Australian federal Senate and her party broke up acrimoniously amid allegations of wrongdoing and internal bickering.
Recently, Hanson has quit One Nation and launched a new career promoting a country and western singer.
Hanson and Ettridge were accused of pretending that a list of more than 500 names used when applying to register One Nation with Queensland's Electoral Commission were party members.
Actually they were just supporters, prosecutors said. To get registered in Queensland, a party must show it has more than 500 members if it does not already have an elected representative.
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