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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.

Sydney, June 7: Nobel peace laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu has joined an international human rights campaign condemning Australia’s decision to deport a leading Iranian cleric later this month.

Sheikh Mansour Leghaei, a moderate Shia cleric, has been living peacefully with his family in Australia for 16 years. He has never been granted permanent residency due to two adverse security assessments made against him by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) several years ago.

Contrary to the right to a fair hearing in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Australia is a signatory, Australia has never informed Dr Leghaei of the nature of the allegations against him. A leading proponent of interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance in Sydney, Dr Leghaei strenuously denies he is a threat to Australia’s national security.

“In South Africa we used to have detention without trial. In Australia you have deportation without trial,” said Bishop Tutu.

In April the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) formally requested Australia not to deport Dr Leghaei while it considered whether his human rights had been breached. On May 17 the Australian Immigration Minister, Senator Chris Evans, ignored the UN’s request and announced that Dr Leghaei had six weeks to leave.

“The impending deportation of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei is a travesty of justice. There is no doubt at all that his human rights have been violated,” said Dr Chandra Muzaffar, a leading Malaysian political scientist, Islamic reformist and activist.

A week after Amnesty International criticized the Australian Government for putting political self-interest ahead of human rights in its treatment of asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, international human rights advocates have rallied behind Dr Leghaei, including:

• Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, retired Bishop of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
• Máiread Corrigan-Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
• Dr Chandra Muzaffar
• Professor Hans Köchler, president of the International Progress Organization.
• Dr Norman Finkelstein, American political scientist.
• Bishop Desmond Tutu

Helen Signy +61 425 202 654
Father Dave Smith +61 409 620 009
Ben Saul +61 424 365 146

The following is a letter from Father John Pearce – Parish Priest at St Brigid’s, Marrickville (the largest church in our region) to Australian MP’s

Together with two local Anglican Priests and some members of our three Parishes, on Thursday 5th June I travelled by bus convoy to Canberra for a Rally in support of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei.

Mansour is an Imam neighbour of mine and President of our Marrickville Inter-Faith Round Table.  He will be deported in 3 weeks unless our Federal Government backs down. He has been given a negative assessment by ASIO after 16 years of peaceful work in the community. He is the only fluent English speaking Imam in Sydney. He preaches in English, thus has a large young multicultural Islamic Community. Our convoy of 14 buses from Sydney and Melbourne had many young people as our hosts and leaders. If our Christian Churches had such numbers of young people, we would be overflowing with good Disciples.

After standing in Solidarity with yesterday outside Parliament, I found a lot of the young people talk in gratitude on the bus back, and of how much he has influenced their lives and the lives of others. It was most inspiring. I now look forward to inviting some of them here for a dinner conversation with some of our young people for the St Brigid’s Parish 2nd Annual Ifta Dinner I will host in August.

Despite approaches to the PM’s office, neither he nor any of his ministers were available to join us on the lawns opposite Parliament. Neither did the Opposition. The local Greens Candidate for Grayndler at least travelled with us and participated. Also, the AFP informed us that neither the Sheikh nor rally participants could enter the Parliamentary Building to even hand his letter of appeal to the Front Desk. The young people did such a great job with crowd movement, the AFP had little to do.

As you may know, one of my concerns is this comes 90 years after a Passionist Priest from my Parish of Marrickville was deported for opposing conscription during WWI, as did many of our Bishops and citizens. He was German born, British educated, finished school at Parramatta, yet deemed a threat to the State. While his father became a British subject, he forgot to put his son and wife on the papers. After internment at Holsworthy where he acted as Chaplain to other Internees, he was deported and lived the next 7years in USA and England. (The weren’t afraid of him). He died in London in 1928.  His name was Fr Charles Jerger CP (google that for good reports).

The Sheikh asks for natural justice, ie, to know what he is accused of and the right to defend himself in law. He has been told that as a non citizen, he does not have any of those rights. But we know he has human and God given rights.

Meanwhile, the UN has asked for a stay on deportation so that they can investigate this case. We wait on that.

As a life long Labour voter, yesterday I found myself joining the chant of Shame Rudd Shame. I now wonder how I should vote at the next election. The days of the Whitlam Government in 1972-75 were short, but at least that PM brought social justice into the open and applied it.

We seem to have reverted to being a secret society once again.

Thanks for reading this. I pray that we become a country where true justice is given to all people, citizen and non citizen, as they are all God’s children.

Perhaps you might like to write to the PM. His deportation date is June 27.

John
Fr John Pearce CP
Parish Priest

Labor Abandons Human Rights: Sheikh, Family Pay Terrible Price

Greens Candidate for Grayndler, Sam Byrne, has condemned the Rudd Labor Government’s decision to deport Sheikh Mansour Leghaei.

“After 16 years in Australia, the Sheikh and his family are paying a terrible personal price for the government’s cowardice in the lead up to the Federal election,” Sam Byrne said.

“Labor’s desperation to pander to racism has led to this decision, in defiance of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and any principles of natural justice.”

“Once again Labor is abandoning any principle. If they don’t stand for human rights, what do they stand for?”

“I call on the Government to reverse its decision, and at the very least release these secret old ASIO allegations against the Sheikh and give him a chance to respond.”

“Sheikh Leghaei has made a substantial contribution to multi-faith dialogue and our local community, and we will continue to support him.”

Sam Byrne

Contact Sam on 0408 231 509

Also from the Greens:

1. Dale Mills writes in Green Left that the deportation of Sheikh Mansour is another instance of the Australian government silencing people it doesn’t agree with (click here).
2. Senator Scott Ludlam of the Greens has advised that he will ask questions on notice in parliament to the Minister for Immigration and to ASIO about Australia’s failure to respond to the UN’s request to put a halt to Sheikh Mansour’s deporation.