| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Down Under | |
| Deportation of sheikh puts Australia at odds with the UN | |
| 2010-05-17 | |
Australia has defied a United Nations request by ordering the deportation an Iranian Muslim cleric on security grounds before the UN assesses the alleged denial of his human rights.
''I hope God forgives him because he does not know any better,'' Dr Leghaei said of Senator Evans at the University of Sydney. Here the sheikh was flanked by one of his many Christian supporters, the Anglican priest Dave Smith, and Ben Saul, one of the human rights barristers who sent a petition to the UN a month ago. A week later, on April 21, the UN's Human Rights Committee asked the Australian government not to deport Dr Leghaei while it considered his case, a process that could take a year. ASIO had accused Dr Leghaei of undisclosed ''acts of foreign interference'' but, because he is a non-citizen, Australian law entitles him to no explanation - a position confirmed by the High Court. But Associate Professor Saul, the co-director of the university's centre for international law, said Australia was in violation of six articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. ''In other countries, like Britain and in Europe, affected persons are given an opportunity to see at least a summary of the evidence against them. In the sheikh's case, he's been given access to nothing whatsoever.'' Insisting he was no spy or terrorist, Dr Leghaei said: ''I think my 16 years of peaceful life in Australia is my best evidence.'' Senator Evans said national security must be paramount. ''Many people have expressed their support for Dr Leghaei and I understand that my decision will disappoint his friends and members of his local community. The fact remains that he is the subject of an adverse security assessment.'' In 1995, authorities at Sydney Airport secretly photocopied Dr Leghaei's exercise book containing notes on scholars' explanations of jihad. But the Federal Court later accepted his translation, not ASIO's which, he says, added inflammatory material about the killing of infidels. | |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #4 "The UN has no say in the matter." Rest assured that will in no way shut them up, Gee. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2010-05-17 18:14 |
| #3 UN's Human Rights Committee asked the Australian government not to deport Dr Leghaei This Yuman Rites Commission? Libya will not be lonesome. Other candidates include Malaysia, Mauritania, Uganda, Angola and Qatar. The 2009 reports from the state department on all these Council shoe-ins tell us the following: in Uganda there are politically-motivated killings by the government, and law enforcement officials view wife-beating as a husband’s prerogative. In Angola there is government torture, widespread rape of inmates, and Internet chat rooms are monitored. In Malaysia, religious authorities arrest “deviants” in order to return them to the "true path of Islam.” In Qatar the law calls for 10 year sentences for individuals proselytizing anything but Islam, conversion away from Islam is a capital offense, and the legal system treats with leniency men who murder women where there has been “immodesty” on the part of the victim. |
| Posted by: tipper 2010-05-17 15:18 |
| #2 The United Nations does not have the authority to tell any country whom they can or cannot allow in to their country. Article 2 of the UN Charter states 7. Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII. The UN has no say in the matter |
| Posted by: Gee 2010-05-17 14:23 |
| #1 they should tell his 1200 member congregation too leav ewith him and be glad they gave you 6 weeks |
| Posted by: chris 2010-05-17 14:12 |