Sect men fasting in jail

Press, 26 January 1979, Page 4

Sect men fasting in jail

Two members of the Ananda Marga religious sect remanded in custody, in Wellington on Wednesday are fasting in protest but their fast has so far left prison authorities unimpressed, reports the Press Association.

Timothy Thomas Hilton Jones, aged 25, described as a religious teacher, and David John Field, aged 23, unemployed, each pleaded guilty before Mr B. JA McKerr, S.M. to a charge of forgery and of using a document with intent to defraud Field also pleaded guilty to a charge of obtaining a document with intent.

They were remanded in custody for a week for sentence. Ananda Marga members said on Wednesday night that the two were fasting in protest against being remanded in custody. Yesterday morning the

superintendent of Mount Crawford Prison (Mr L. Hine) said that the two had been there only a day and that it would not have been reported to him if they had not eaten their breakfast. “We do not worry about these things: plenty of inmates go without a meal here and there,” he said Nine or 10 of the in-

mates might have gone without breakfast yesterday.

“It would not concern us until they had not eaten for a number of days. But if they do not want to eat, it is their choice.” The Court was told on Wednesday that the two Ananda Marga members had forged and used documents in order to obtain New Zealand passports.

Jones was an Australian national and the holder of an Australian passport which had been withdrawn by the Australian Government last year.