An Iranian man who killed his wife and disposed of her body in a vat of acid could be the next person to be released into the community after a landmark High Court decision.
The High Court ruled on Nov. 8 that it was unlawful to hold people in immigration detention indefinitely if they are unable to return to their countries of origin.
The decision has allowed more than 93 foreigners—the majority of whom have committed violent or sexual crimes—to be set free. A larger cohort of 340 detainees may also be released, according to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.
Among those waiting to get out is Tony Kellisar, a former Iranian soldier who served 20 years in prison for brutally murdering his wife, Svetlana Podgoyetsky.
He strangled her to death in Melbourne in 1997 and drove her body to Sydney to dissolve it in a wheelie bin of acid.
When facing the Victorian Supreme Court in 1999, he tried to persuade a jury that he committed the crime by accident despite evidence strongly suggesting that it was carefully calculated.
Mr. Kellisar fled to Australia as a refugee in 1990 on a forged Canadian passport. He was transferred from prison to detention centre with his visa cancelled due to the seriousness of his criminal offences.
Killer’s Stepdaughters Reported Living In Fear
Mr. Kellisar has two step daughters, who said they were terrified by the prospect that he would come for them after being released from the detention centre.
Sydney sisters Serrah and Bianca Katz, whose mother was killed under their stepfather’s hand, said Mr. Kellisar has previously tried to take them from their grandparents’ house when he came to Sydney in 1997.
“Growing up without your mum was awful, but what was worse was having in the back of your mind one day he would be released,” Serrah told the Herald Sun.
“I have no doubt he wanted to murder us, we’ve grown up knowing if he ever got out he would come for us.”
They had grown up in fear as their stepfather was violent towards them, Serrah added.
Labor Government Said New Restrictions Mandatory
The centre-left Albanese government on Nov. 18 announced that the released detainees must comply with strict visa conditions, including reporting their travel plans and details of people they live with, as well as wearing electronic monitoring devices and following a curfew.
People who were previously convicted of violence or sexual assault will be banned from contacting their victims or their victims’ families.
Meanwhile, detainees who committed offences involving children will also be banned from working with children or other vulnerable people and from being within 200 metres of a school, daycare centre or childcare centre.
“Any breach of reporting, of curfew or electronic monitoring conditions is now a criminal offence. These breaches have a mandatory minimum sentence of one year and a maximum penalty of five years in prison,” Mr. Giles said.
Previously, the restrictions would only be applied at the ministers discretion, meaning the rule could be relaxed, but following the Coalition’s demand, they have become mandatory. This is despite the government previously saying they couldn’t legislate until the High Court handed down its reasoning.
Lack Of Details About Detainees’ Crimes
Mr. Giles said that the government needed to comply with the High Court’s orders despite disagreeing with the decision.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson said the government should have introduced a legislation that included preventative and continuing detention orders to protect the community.
“The reason why I think it would be treated differently is we already have preventative and continuing detention orders within the high risk terrorist offenders framework and they are applied when a government makes an application to a court and the court agrees,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Nov. 18
“What the High Court have said is that the government cannot indefinitely detain someone. Only a court can punish someone and a continuing or preventative detention order is completely consistent with that ruling.”
He criticised the government for not being transparent about “exactly who has been released or exactly what crimes they committed.”
“They knew this for many weeks before the High Court handed down this decision. In fact, they tendered this document in the High Court as part of the proceedings. And so their inability to be ready for this really is a shocking failing to protect our community,” he said.
“The government was caught completely flat footed when the High Court handed down its decision on Wednesday and it didn’t have draft legislation ready to go. It should have been because Jacqueline Gleeson of the High Court warned them in June that the High Court was likely to find this scheme unconstitutional.”
According to The Guardian, 21 of the released detainees were convicted of crimes related to “national security, cybercrime, serious and high profile organised/gang-related, high-ranking outlaw motorcycle gangs.”
Meanwhile, 27 people had committed grave violent crimes, crimes against children, domestic violence and sexual or exploitative offences against women.
Twenty-nine had committed “violent, sexual or exploitative offences.”
Among the foreigners, those coming from Afghanistan, Iran, and Sudan made up the majority.
Forty reside in New South Wales, 24 in Victoria, 11 in Queensland, nine in Western Australia, six in South Australia, and two in the Australian Capital Territory.
