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As Greens Candidate for Grayndler Sam Byrne travelled to Canberra to join the rally in support of Sheikh Mansour, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam submitted these questions in Parliament to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, asking him why no details of an ASIO assessment have ever been provided to the Sheikh:

1. Did the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (the committee) write to the Australian Government on 21 April 2010 requesting that Sheikh Mansour Leghaei not be deported until it had considered his case.
2. Has the Government responded formally to the letter from the Chief of the UN human rights treaty division who wrote on behalf of the committee.
3. Has Sheikh Mansour Leghaei or his legal representatives been provided with a summary or an indication of the elements of the evidence the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has collected against him.
4. In this regard, how does the Government understand Australia’s obligations under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, taking into account the committee’s General Comment No. 33, paragraph 19 (CCPR/C/GC/33, dated 5 November 2009).
5. Has the Government noted instances where the committee has expressed its indignation and found that the state has committed a grave breach of its obligations under the Optional Protocol, such as the committee’s Report of the human rights committee (UN General Assembly Official Record, 49th Sess., Supp. No. 40, UN Doc. A/49/40, vol. 1 (1994), para. 411) and Piandiong v. The Philippines (Communication No. 869/1999, para. 7.4).
6. Will the Government provide an assurance to Sheikh Mansour Leghaei that he will not be removed from Australia until the committee has finally determined his case on the merits, as required by the committee’s interim measures request of 21 April 2010.
7. Did the current Attorney General write two letters of support for Sheikh Mansour Leghaei describing him as ‘an asset to the Muslim community in particular and the Australian community at large’.

Senator Scott Ludlum

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
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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

Join us on Thursday June 3rd at 11.30am in Canberra.

Full details can be found at CanberraRally.com and you can download the poster with the details here.