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| Down Under |
| Suspected Islamic State fighter wins court battle to keep his Australian citizenship after the government's power to strip dual nationals of their second passport was ruled invalid |
| 2022-06-11 |
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
Turkish-Australian Delil Alexander, 35, is in jail in Syria after his Australian citizenship was removed on July 2 last year. The identity of the second person is unknown. Alexander's lawyers argued the Sydney-born man was in danger of 'serious human rights violations' including torture while imprisoned in Syria. A majority of the High Court found on Wednesday the citizenship stripping powers legislated by the former coalition government were invalid. The court found it gave the former home affairs minister 'the exclusively judicial function of adjudging and punishing criminal guilt'. It is understood Alexander and the other person will have their citizenship restored, but the decision will not impact on people held onshore. Alexander left Australia for Turkey on April 16, 2013, but just over two weeks later he was married in Syria. ASIO assessed he joined terrorist group Islamic State by August 2013 - a qualified security assessment over which he has sought judicial review. In November 2017, he was arrested by Kurdish militia in a place in Syria which was not a declared area under Australian terrorist laws. Alexander was transferred to Syrian custody and given five years in jail for 'unspecified offences under the Syrian Penal Code'. He was pardoned in June last year, having served 18 months of his term. Shortly after he was pardoned, the ASIO director-general provided classified advice to the then home affairs minister which did not recommend citizenship cancellation, the court heard. However, the minister Karen Andrews stripped Alexander's citizenship in July 2021. Since then, he has been in Syrian intelligence custody and his family and lawyers have been unable to contact him, leading to his sister Berivan having to launch the legal action as a 'litigation guardian'. Government lawyers argued the minister met the three required conditions in the decision: a person has engaged in the requisite conduct; the conduct demonstrates the person has repudiated their allegiance to Australia; and it would be contrary to the public interest for them to remain an Australian citizen. Former attorney-general Christian Porter, in introducing the changes in 2018, argued stripping Australian citizenship of people who sought to do the nation harm was an 'an integral part of our ongoing response to international violent extremism and terrorism'. Alexander's lawyers argued the power to cancel the status of an Australian citizen is 'inherently a domestic matter' and should be reserved for a judge. The court heard Alexander retains Turkish citizenship. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #2 Based on "The court found it gave the former home affairs minister 'the exclusively judicial function of adjudging and punishing criminal guilt'." It seems to imply the courts wants to be the ruling authority, not some bureaucrat or collection of their minions. However, I do agree when an immigrant citizen takes up arms against a duly elected government, after having earned and been granted citizenship. That citizenship should be revoked by an independent, unbiased court. They should then be expelled AFTER having served their Prison term. |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2022-06-11 06:33 |