A LEADING Muslim cleric, who ASIO says is a national security risk, faces deportation after a court dismissed his bid to stay in Australia. Iranian-born Sheik Mansour Leghaei took action in the Federal Court to avoid deportation after the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said he was a risk to national security. Justice Rodney Madgwick today dismissed Mr Leghaei's application to have his adverse security assessment declared void.Justice Madgwick told the Federal Court in Canberra by videolink from Sydney he would reserve the reasons for his decision, along with cost questions, until a later date – expected to be within two weeks. Some of the reasons will be released publicly, but others will remain confidential. Mr Leghaei, a 43-year-old father of four who has lived in Australia for a decade, was automatically denied a permanent residency visa after ASIO issued an adverse security assessment, alleging he had been involved in "acts of foreign interference". Under Australian law, this can mean spying on, or intimidating, dissidents, and secretly collecting official, military or political information for a foreign government.
Mr Leghaei is on a bridging visa pending his deportation. His legal counsel had argued that he had been denied procedural fairness and natural justice in having his visa cancelled. But the federal government's legal team argued Mr Leghaei was denied his visa under a clear and long-standing scheme and the ASIO Act did not require Mr Leghaei to be told of the reasons.
| "It's our country. We can let in who we want, and keep out who we want, and we don't want him." |