A brilliant article by Rick Feneley was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on May 1st in which the case against Sheikh Mansour Leghaei was exposed as baseless.

The article, Accusations Lost in Translation, chronicles a rather worrying list of accusations that have been made against the Sheikh – accusations that incriminate not only Mansour but his entire family.

Sheikh Mansour’s sister, for instance, is depicted as an agent of the Iranian government who walks the streets of Tehran with a walkie-talkie hidden under her veil, informing on women who dress immodestly. The detailed nature of the accusation would suggest that it must have some basis in reality, except that Mansour doesn’t have a sister!

Of course this is only one of a series of accusations about our Iranian Sheikh, but Feneley’s article brought to mind for me Anthonly Flew’s old dictum – that 100 leaking buckets hold no more water than one leaking bucket. Read it here.

The other news is that on Monday May 3rd Mansour was given yet another two week extension on his visa, to give more time to the Minister to make up his mind about his future. How long, O Lord, must we wait for justice?

Having submitted his formal appeal to the Minister for Immigration, Sheikh Mansour Leghaei has broken his silence and spoken openly to Lateline about his concern for his family and his ongoing hope for justice.

Sheikh Mansour’s story has been widely publicised in all the major Sydney papers this week and is gaining international attention.  Amongst other media pieces published this week:

• Sydney Morning Herald: “One last chance for cleric in ASIO’s sights“
• The Canterbury Torch and Valley Times publish “Forced Out“.
• The Australian publishes “Sheik Leghaei wins another month’s visa“
• The Leader publishes “Sheikh fights deportation after ASIO concerns“
• Sheikh Mansour and Ali are interviewed on JJJ Hack Radio
• Father Dave speaks on his relationship with Sheikh on ABC’s The Drum.

And the good news is that Sheikh Mansour has now been given an extension on his visa until the Minister for Immigration has considered his appeal.  The extension currently takes him through to the middle of April 2010