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Ali Leghaei – Sheikh Mansour’s son – has started a petition, asking the Australian Minister for Immigration to accede to the directions of the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) by reassessing his father’s case.

Click here or the pic to sign the petition now.

It’s been more than a year since Sheikh Mansour Leghaei was forced to depart Austarlia as an alleged security risk, having never been told what it was that he was supposed to have done wrong! Mansour lives quietly with his family but his friends in Australia have by no means given up on his return.

Complaints over Mansour’s treatment by the Australian government were made to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) early in  2010, but we still await a final ruling.  The Austarlian government did eventually make a response to questions posed by the UNHRC. Sheikh Mansour’s team in Australia subsequently responded to the Australian government’s response. The case is before the UNHRC and we await a final ruling with a great degree of confidence.

In the meantime questions continue to be raised about the role of ASIO in Australia. They seem to be accountable to no one – pursuing people for reasons that often prove to be completely erroneous, and making assessments of people that can destroy people’s lives but which they never have to prove.

The following 7.30 Report segement was put together by Greg Miskelly:

Sheikh Mansour might have left Australia but controversy remains, and the battle to see justice ultimately prevail is far from over.

This week an excellent article was published by Dr Michael Head – Associate Professor of Law at the University of Western Sydney – entitled, “Asylum seekers and ASIO’s abuse of power“. Dr Head sees Sheikh Mansour’s case as illustrative of the way in which our security organistion (ASIO) has become ‘legally unchallengeable’ – a situation that Professor Head describes as a ‘grave worry’.

Also in the news this week are two excellent articles from Press TV:

• “The Curious Case of an Iranian Cleric” and
• “Iranian Cleric denied justice in Australia“

Yet the final word on the deportation must be given to Mansour’s family – both to his three sons who have been left behind, and to his faith community, who put together the second of these two videos:

To hear the wonderful Tripple J interview with Mansour’s son, Ali, given on the day of his dad’s deportation, click here.

For more articles and videos, I’d suggested checking out this section of the World News site that contains dozens of articles and images and about 50 videos on Sheikh Mansour’s case (many of which I had not seen before).

On Saturday June 26th we had a formal farewell at the Imam Husain Islamic Centre.  More than 1000 people crammed in – people of all faiths and cultures from across the region. On Sunday morning Mansour joined us at Holy Trinity Church to farewell his many supporters there.  That evening, despite Sheikh’s attempts to dissuade us from coming to the airport, more than 300 of us showed up to make our final farewells.

It was an emotional time.  Indeed, I find it hard to watch the video coverage below without the tears welling up again.

The story was also covered briefly on Ten News. You can see that here.

The fight does not end here. The Australian Government has until Ocotber 21st to respond to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and explain why they charged, judged and executed Sheikh Mansour without ever telling him what he’d done wrong.

If you have any ideas as to how we can put pressure on the Australian government to respond to the United Nations, submit them to the Fighting Fathers Forum (nb. you’ll need to use VIP code ‘NO HOMERS’ to register).

The following is an open letter from the supporters of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The Hon. Kevin Rudd, MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Australian Parliament
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2600

June 3, 2010

Dear Prime Minister

Re: Request to prevent the deportation of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei in accordance with the communication of the United Nations Human Rights Committee of 21 April, 2010.

We are supporters of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei, a moderate Iranian cleric who leads the 1500-member Imam Husain Islamic Centre in Earlwood and is the elected head of the local Interfaith Committee.

As you will be aware, Dr Leghaei and his family have lived peacefully in Australia for 16 years. His application for Permanent Residency in Australia has been denied due to two Adverse Security Assessments issued by ASIO in 1997 and 2004.

A leading proponent of interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance in Sydney, Dr Leghaei strenuously denies he has ever been a threat to Australia’s national security.

Contrary to the right to a fair hearing enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Australia is a signatory, Dr Leghaei has never been informed of the nature of the allegations against him, either by ASIO or in any of the court proceedings he has brought to challenge ASIO’s assertion. In one of these hearings, a judge of the Federal Court of Australia observed that Dr Leghaei’s right to procedural fairness had been reduced to ‘nothingness’.

Australia’s failure to guarantee a fair trial is at odds with much of the liberal democratic world: in Britain and Europe, for example, human rights law requires that a person always be told the substance of the allegations. The denial of a fair hearing is also foreign to our ancient common law tradition, which requires that a person can challenge the evidence against them in an adversarial process.

Where a person is unable to see or test the evidence, it cannot be determined whether they are actually a risk to national security or not. Deporting Dr Leghaei in such circumstances would be internationally unlawful.

On April 21, the United Nations Human Rights Committee issued a request, under rule 92 of its rules of procedure, that the Australian Government not deport Dr Leghaei and his accompanying dependents to Iran while their case is under consideration by the committee.

However in contravention of this request, the Minister for Immigration, Senator Chris Evans, announced on May 17 that Dr Leghaei would not be granted a visa and that he was expected to make preparations to leave the country by June 28.

This breach of Dr Leghaei’s human rights has provoked concern among the international human rights community. Support for his case has now been received from, amongst others: Bishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town; Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, Bishop of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon; Máiread Corrigan-Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Dr Chandra Muzaffar, Malaysian political scientist; Professor Hans Köchler, President of the International Progress Organization; Dr Norman Finkelstein, American political scientist, and Bishop George Browning, retired Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn.

Dr Leghaei and his family have also received thousands of letters of support from members of the Anglican, Catholic, Indigenous and Muslim communities. His removal from Australia will result in the closure of the Centre and deprive 1500 Muslims of a leadership which preaches tolerance and peace.

Today more than 1,000 concerned Australians from different community backgrounds have travelled to Canberra to deliver this letter to you.

We applaud your Government’s stated commitment to human rights and global governance. At a time when it is more important than ever to build bridges between people of different faiths, we call on you to ensure that the principles of human rights and the right to a fair trial are upheld in this individual case.

Therefore we respectfully request that you provide an assurance to Dr Leghaei that he will not be removed from Australia until the UN Human Rights Committee has finally determined his case on its merits.