PM says tribunal member made call to release detainee charged with murder
Anthony Albanese has sought to shield his government from further backlash over a former immigration detainee now charged with murder, with the Prime Minister saying the decision to release him was made by a coalition-appointed member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Amid demands from the federal opposition to sack Immigration Minister Andrew Giles for failing to overrule the decision by AAT Deputy President Stephen Boyle, the PM suggested the coalition was partly to blame for giving him the job.
"I think if you go back and have a look at who appointed the people that made that decision - it wasn't this government," the PM said.
Emmanuel Saki is accused of fatally stabbing Bosco Minyurano (pictured) in Brisbane on May 12.
Boyle was appointed by the coalition government in 2017 when Liberal George Brandis was Attorney-General.
Emmanuel Saki is accused of fatally stabbing Bosco Minyurano in Brisbane on May 12.
9News revealed this week that Saki was released from immigration detention in April after the AAT decided he was "now a low risk of reoffending" and reinstated his visa.
This was despite the AAT noting his "frequent" offending and its "trend of increasing seriousness", which saw Saki convicted of more than 40 offences as an adult in NSW, the ACT, South Australia and Queensland.
Giles said his thoughts were "with the family of the victim".
"I don't want to say anything that might interfere with those criminal processes (but) what I can say is that over five years successive governments sought to maintain the cancellation of this individual's visa," Giles said.
"The AAT made a decision to overturn it, notwithstanding the directions which put a very high priority on community safety and recognise the importance of the Australian community to domestic violence."
Sudanese-born Saki arrived in Australia as an 11-year-old on a humanitarian visa along with his father and siblings.
Giles said his thoughts were
But his visa was cancelled in 2019, the year after he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for choking his partner unconscious, in front of their infant daughter.
The AAT reinstated Saki's visa on March 27, partly due to new rules introduced by Giles in 2023 requiring the tribunal, in visa cancellation cases, to consider the length of time spent in Australia.
"That is the reason that this individual was allowed back into the community," Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said.
"The AAT made that clear in the decisions that they handed down, they cited the Direction 99 that had been issued by the Minister.
"There's no sense in the Prime Minister and Andrew Giles blaming the AAT - the AAT can only abide by the laws in front of them.
"The government watered down the character test, and it's meant that this individual has been released back out into the community, and the allegation now is that he's gone on to commit a murder.
"That is a very, very serious matter for the Government...to explain."