‘Disturbing’: Politicisation of wrongful charge of ex-detainee condemned

The prime minister and legal leaders have condemned the opposition’s politicisation of the wrongful arrest and charging this week of a former immigration detainee and convicted sex offender released into the community after last year’s High Court ruling.

Police have denied racial profiling played a role in the arrest of former detainee Alfons Pirimapun, who was subsequently and wrongfully charged with stalking and sexual assault in Richmond in a colossal bungle earlier this week.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during question time on Thursday.

Hours later, police dropped all charges against him and said it had been a case of mistaken identity. On Friday afternoon, Victoria Police said detectives had taken a 54-year-old Kew man into custody over the allegations, and he was assisting them with their inquiries.

Also on Friday, Victoria Police Commander Mark Galliot insisted that racial profiling was not a factor in the original arrest.

“Based on the evidence and the descriptions we had at that time, there was grounds for the arrest, they look very much alike and very similar,” he told ABC radio.

“As well with the GPS data, [this] gave the investigators enough to satisfy themselves this was the offender.”

News of the ex-detainee’s arrest was seized on by the Coalition, who used it in question time to accuse the Albanese government of compromising community safety by releasing the group after the November court decision.

Pirimapun was wearing an ankle bracelet at the time, per the conditions of his release from custody, and was in the area around the same time of the assault.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the criminal justice system should be able to operate without fear that potential arrests and charges will be seized upon by political leaders.

“We know that people, including the legal system, has to be allowed to operate in this country,” he said on Friday morning.

“The police authorities should be allowed to do their job free of this pre-emptive political gameplay.”

Victoria Police and the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court explicitly exonerated Pirimapun, who is no longer a suspect in the current investigation.

Greg Barns, national criminal justice spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said it was politicians’ duty to uphold the rule of law and not malign people accused of a crime but not yet convicted.

“It is very disturbing to see federal politicians smearing the character of individuals, irrespective of who they are, when they’ve simply been arrested, or spoken to, and not yet charged,” Barns said.

“Politicians need to uphold the rule of law and this is an egregious example of failing to do so for political purposes. It is a deeply disturbing development for our legal system.

“It is undermining of the legal system … a smear of a person’s character, purely for political purposes, a deeply cynical action.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley directly linked the issue to Saturday’s Dunkley byelection in a post on social media site X that remained online on Friday morning after the charges had been withdrawn.

“If you live in Frankston and you’ve got a problem with Victorian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor,” Ley posted.

She defended her comments and continued to lash the government’s handling of the fallout from the High Court decision on Sunrise on Friday morning.

“Anyone who watched question time during this week and saw your hopeless immigration minister unable to demonstrate that he even knows where his criminals [are], what they’re doing, who’s monitoring them and whether the community is safe, would probably not agree with what you’ve just said,” Ley said in an exchange with Education Minister Jason Clare.

Victoria Police Commander Mark Galliot apologised to Pirimapun at a press conference shortly after the charges were dropped, while arguing it wasn’t a mistake to arrest him on Wednesday night.

“I wouldn’t say it was a blunder; investigators had sufficient evidence to make an arrest,” he said.

“Yes, there was an error in arresting the person and remanding him, and as I said, as soon as we found out, we rectified it and we apologise sincerely.”

The 44-year-old man from West Papua had been detained in immigration after he’d been convicted of previous sexual offences in two states, including rape.

With Paul Sakkal

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.