Dan Harrison, David Wroe and Bianca Hall
May 31, 2013
Mistakenly cleared for release: A convicted Egyptian terrorist was held in low-security detention for nearly eight months. Photo: Craig Sillitoe
The Coalition has demanded the government set up an independent inquiry into how an Egyptian terrorist who came to Australia as an asylum seeker was mistakenly cleared to be released into the community by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
The convicted Egyptian terrorist, who arrived in Australia by boat, was on an Interpol red alert list at the time.
Even after the mistake was realised, the man, who had been convicted in Egypt on murder and terrorism charges in 1999, was held in a low-security detention centre for nearly eight months, a Senator hearing was told on Thursday. In the end, the man was never released.
Coalition immigration spokesman has called for an independent inquiry in the case of the terrorist mistakenly cleared for release in the community. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
He was moved last month from the low-security Inverbrackie centre in the Adelaide Hills to a higher security centre in Sydney.
The Australian Federal Police also realised who the man was in November 14, 2012. Yet the Department of Immigration has said it was not informed of the man's criminal past until February this year.
Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison on Friday warned the Coalition would move for an independent inquiry next week if the government did not act first.
''The government was grossly negligent in keeping a known and convicted jihadist terrorist in low security asylum seeker family accommodation at Inverbrackie for five months, a facility secured by a perimeter pool fence and located adjacent to a defence force facility. This disgraceful incident is a scandal and demands a full independent inquiry," Mr Morrison said.
''The government's response to date has offered no word of concern or explanation for this scandal.
''We need to know just how this was allowed to happen and make the changes needed to ensure it does not happen again. We also need to know whether any other serious cases may have slipped through Labor's light touch immigration security net.''
The revelations came on Thursday when ASIO director-general David Irvine was questioned in a Senate estimates hearing, which also revealed that only 10 per cent to 15 per cent of asylum seekers arriving by boat receive a full ASIO security check before they are given protection visas.
The man convicted of terrorism offences is understood to be a 55-year-old named Suleiman and he appears to have been connected with a bomb attack.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus told the hearing the man had been convicted in absentia for belonging to a terrorist organisation, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. His offences also included premeditated murder, destruction of property, unlawful possession of firearms and explosives, and forgery.
The man arrived at Christmas Island in May 2012 with his family and was moved to Inverbrackie.
ASIO deemed him fit to be released into community detention due to ''a clerical or some other mistake'', Mr Irvine said.
''ASIO missed that man, didn't they?'' shadow attorney-general George Brandis asked.
Mr Irvine replied ASIO had either ''thought … that he was someone else or that he was not registered in our holdings''.
ASIO was told by the country that put the man on the Interpol list - thought to be Egypt - the man in Inverbrackie was not the same man as the terrorist. That country later corrected this. Yet even after ASIO corrected its mistake on August 30, 2012, the man was not moved.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration said the department learnt of the man's identity in February.
''In late February when suspicions about the man's criminal past were confirmed by the relevant agency, the department did take immediate steps to facilitate the man and his family's transfer into a higher security detention at Villawood,'' she said.
Asked whose fault the security breach was, given it the apparent time gap between ASIO informing the Australian Federal Police, and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship taking action, the Coalition's attorney-general spokesman, George Brandis blamed the federal government's border protection policies.
''There have been - since the Labor Party was elected - some 42,000 arrivals, and of those only about 15 per cent have been given a full security treatment,'' Senator Brandis told ABC's Lateline on Thursday night.
''This man wasn't; he slipped through the net, and the reason he slipped through the net is because ASIO simply doesn't have the resources to cope with the vastly increased number.
''The system that they have in place at the moment is the best system that they can devise, given the resources that they have and given they are no longer able to give a full security - a risk assessment - to 100 per cent of the arrivals.''
