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May 31st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Richard Brunt Lussick was the presiding judge among a panel of international jurists in a United Nations-backed war crimes court who on Wednesday sentenced former Liberian president Charles Taylor to serve 50 years in jail.
While Lussick’s name has been frequently splashed around the globe, especially in the past 24 hours, he remains very much a mystery.
One obvious reason Australian attention has not been focussed on Lussick is that he is invariably listed as Samoan. There is a story in that alone, because although Lussick held New Zealand citizenship, he has never lived in that country.
In fact, he was born in Sydney and grew up very much an ‘‘Aussie kid’’, according to a former classmate.
One tantalising tale about ‘Dick’ Lussick, told literally ‘‘out of school’’, came from an old classmate at Marist Brothers, Kogarah, and concerned a Latin class given by a ‘‘Brother R’’.
The brother ‘‘was selecting students to read out their homework to the class. The boy sitting next to me was asked to read his … which, as usual, he hadn’t done. In a flash, he whispered, ‘Quick, give me yours’, and reached over, grabbed mine, and then stood up and read it. Unfortunately, Brother R then asked me to read mine. Like a fool (you didn’t dob in those days) I stood up and said that I didn’t do my homework. Needless to say, I got four of the best, while Dick couldn’t stop laughing. My next door mate went on to a successful career in the legal profession.’’
This allegation from almost 60 years ago is contained in an anecdote published in the first edition of the Marist Brothers, Kogarah ‘‘Classes of 55-57: Keeping in Touch’’ in February last year. It was pointedly placed right underneath a ‘‘Where are they now?’’ profile of one Richard (Dick) Lussick.
Officially, the hearings in The Hague suburb of Leidschendam were held by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, sitting as part of Trial Chamber II, but staged in Holland to avoid causing ‘‘destabilisation’’ in West Africa.
I was only able to make the connection with Australia (and perhaps Canberra) because of one of those ‘‘no names, no pack drill’’ tip-offs, one I received from an anonymous caller some time ago. Because of Taylor’s trial – and almost exclusively because of that – Lussick’s name will come up tens of thousands of times in any Google search. But other than references to the trial, the internet contains exceedingly little information about Lussick.
I suppose, given the volatility of West Africa, and the very obvious risks involved in trying Taylor, there is a need for Lussick to shroud himself in a cloak of obscurity. After all, a comment left yesterday on an African Standard story, published just a month ago and asking, ‘‘Who is Richard Lussick?’’ contained the dark threat: ‘‘Now that you guys have foolishly sentenced Mr Taylor to 50 years in prison, divine justice will be made.’’
The other basic details about Lussick that I do know are these: He was born in Sydney in 1940, and grew up in a large Catholic family living at 4 Stuart Street, West Kogarah. His father was a New Zealander, Alfred Norman Lussick, his mother Louise Agnes Lussick, née Brunt. The couple married in Apia, Samoa, on August 23, 1922.
Mrs Lussick came from Savaii in Samoa, but Dick’s father was at that time living in Brighton-le-Sands. His mother, Dick’s grandmother, was Amy Rebecca Lussick, a resident of that outer Sydney suburb. Samoa remained under New Zealand control until 1962.
Dick Lussick attended Marist Brothers, Kogarah from 1950-57. It is recorded that ‘‘apart from achieving excellent results in the 1957 leaving certificate exams [Lussick] represented the school at a senior level in both athletics and rugby league’’.
Lussick later went on to study at Sydney University and received a diploma from the barristers admission board after completing a law extension course. He was admitted to the NSW Bar on June 22, 1973. In the late 1970s he practised as a barrister at 225 Macquarie Street, Sydney.
Lussick continued to work in Australia until 1986, when he became parliamentary counsel to the Samoan Attorney-General. He was appointed a judge in 1987 and over the next eight years held a variety of positions within the Samoan judiciary. In 1995 Lussick became chief justice of Kiribati, a position he held for five years.
During that time he was vice-president of the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association.
Lussick was nominated by the Commonwealth to be a judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and was appointed by Sierra Leone in 2004. He was presiding judge in 2006, again in 2009, and last January 17 succeeded Justice Teresa Doherty, of Northern Ireland.
For all that, Lussick remains, as I said, a shadowy figure. Under a headline asking who he is, the African Standard just a month ago reported, ‘‘All eyes are turned to the international criminal tribunal’s landmark verdict … But also many are watching who will be the one to deliver it on behalf of the three judges, as any decision from him will shape the world forever and have a long-lasting effect on the West Africa region [and] the African continent …’’
Little did the Standard know, I suspect, that the one who delivered it was once a Sydney schoolboy alleged by a classmate to have stolen his Latin homework!
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