Oz 'veiled Muslim woman' loses court bid for costs over burqa row

A 47-year-old Sydney woman who was acquitted of lying about a policeman removing her burqa has lost a bid to make the state pay her legal bills.

In June 2010 Carnita Matthews successfully appealed against her conviction and six-month jail sentence for knowingly making a false complaint.

The charge was in relation to an incident when a highway patrol officer in New South Wales stopped Matthews.

The woman claimed that after she refused to remove her veil fully for the purposes of identification, the officer tried to remove it himself.

This claim was later found to be false, and Matthews was charged. A judge, however, ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove it was Matthews who had filed the complaint, because the person who made it was also wearing a niqab and was never fully identified.

Matthews then claimed that the entire prosecution was improper and unreasonable and demanded that NSW Police pay her legal costs.

Judge Clive Jeffreys in the Downing Centre District Court rejected that claim today, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The judge said he could not find that the investigation into the alleged offence had been conducted in an unreasonable or improper manner, or that the proceedings had been initiated without reasonable cause.

According to the report, Matthews' lawyer, Stephen Hopper, said his client would accept the judge's decision.

"She is happy she did not have to go to jail and her name was cleared," the paper quoted Hopper, as saying. (ANI)