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TKT20, cousin of Mulrunji Doomadgee who died in police custody on Palm Island, hands Premier Peter Beattie a petition calling for the sacking of the police officer found responsible for the death by the Acting State Coroner. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt) Beattie faces hostile crowd over Palm Island death in custody Thursday, 5 October 2006 By Rosemary Desmond NATIONAL, October 10, 2006: Protesters jostled and yelled at Queensland Premier Peter Beattie as they called yesterday for the sacking of a policeman over an Aboriginal death in custody. Mr Beattie went to meet around 200 protesters outside state parliament on its first sitting day since last month's election. One of the protesters was Alec Doomadgee, cousin of 36-year-old Mulrunji Doomadgee who died on Palm Island off Townsville on November 19, 2004. Last month, deputy state coroner Christine Clements ruled Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley caused Mulrunji's death after striking him several times before leaving him in a holding cell where he died. Snr Sgt Hurley has agreed to stand down on full pay while the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) reviews the case. But the suspension was not good enough for Alec Doomadgee who called for the policeman's sacking and for the DPP to quickly bring charges against him. "I hope you will bring justice to my family who have lost so much over the last two years," he told the Premier. He handed a petition to Mr Beattie but turned down the Premier's offer of a meeting. He said Mr Beattie had only offered the invitation on the spur of the moment when faced with an angry crowd and was "only being nice". Mr Beattie said the law had to take its course. "Indigenous Australians have been fighting for a fair go for 200 years," he said. "If you want a fair go, the only way you will get that is if the process is allowed to be followed appropriately." After the encounter, Mr Beattie said he understood the anger of the protesters and had been keen to meet a delegation. "Our job is to cop those sort of snubs on the chin and move on and I will," he said. Newly-elected Speaker Mike Reynolds, whose Townsville electorate takes in Palm Island, said he believed Snr Sgt Hurley should have been stood down but did not support the call for him to be charged immediately. - AAP • You can download and read the findings of the Acting State Coroner into Mulrunji's death by clicking on the Related Links below. • You can read NIT's coverage of the coroner's findings in the latest print edition, or click on the second Related Link below. http://www.nit.com.au/downloads/ http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=8016 Printer Friendly Version  Email Story to a Friend Submit Letter to Editor * A NOTE TO OUR ONLINE READERS: The multi-award winning National Indigenous Times is an independent newspaper and receives no government funding whatsoever. Our print edition is published every fortnight, but because of the public interest nature of our reporting, we ensure all of our stories are available online at no cost. Thus, we rely entirely on advertising and subscriptions to survive, and hope you'll consider subscribing to NIT's print edition to help us continue our work, or even just browse our Online Shop.

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