Sisters terrified stepfather Tony Kellisar who murdered their mother and dumped her in a vat of acid will be freed after High Court decision and come looking for them

Two Australian sisters are terrified that their stepfather, who murdered their mother when they were children, will hunt them down after a High Court ruling cleared the way for his release.

Serrah and Bianca Katz fear their stepfather, Tony Kellisar, may hold a grudge against them after he was jailed for 22 years by the Supreme Court of Victoria for the 1997 murder of their mother Svetlana Podgoyestsky.

He completed his sentence in 2021 but has since been in immigration detention as he fights the revocation of his refugee visa, which he obtained when he arrived in the country from Iran in 1990 on a fake Canadian passport.

But Kellisar could soon be on the streets after the Supreme Court ruled this month that criminals who had their visas revoked but cannot leave because no other country was willing to resettle them cannot be held in detention indefinitely.

‘I don’t feel safe. I don’t think my family is safe,” Bianca said The Saturday Telegraph this week.

“Growing up without your mother was horrible, but the worst part was that one day it was in the back of your mind that he would be released.”

The two sisters explain that their concerns stem from the fact that Kellisar had been aggressive towards them as children.

‘He was violent towards me and my sister, especially towards me because I was older. I just grew up in fear and it never went away,” Serrah said.

Kellisar had met Ms Podgoyestsky at a Sydney nightclub shortly after arriving in the country.

After a brief romance, the two married, but the relationship quickly descended into bickering and jealousy due to their very different backgrounds.

During the police investigation, friends described Ms Podgoyestsky, who worked as a travel agent, as carefree.

Kellisar, on the other hand, had been a soldier in Iran during a regime in which women were considered second-class citizens.

They are concerned that Tony Kellisar (left) may hold a grudge against them after he was convicted of the 1997 murder of their mother, Svetlana Podgoyestsky (right)

Their fighting came to a grim end when Kellisar followed Ms Podgoyestsky to Melbourne, where she was attending a three-day work conference, and murdered her.

He then drove her body back to Sydney, where he tried to dissolve it in a garbage can with acid.

The two sisters say that since he was released into immigration detention, they have not received any information from the government, despite an email to the Home Office.

They say they feel sad and as if they have to relive the ordeal, and wonder why the government is “not protecting them.”

They didn’t even know if their stepfather was already in the community after the Supreme Court ruling until the publication confirmed to them that he was not one of the 84 criminals who had already been released.

The sisters said they feel like they have to go through the ordeal again

Emergency laws were passed by the government this week, among other things electronic ankle monitoring and curfews, in addition to mandatory minimum prison sentences for people who violate their conditions.

Some former detainees will also be banned from being within 150 meters of a school or daycare center, while no-contact conditions could be imposed on the visas of those convicted of sexual assault or violent crimes.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said the safety of the community remains the top priority.

“From the moment the Supreme Court ruled, we have implemented measures to keep the community safe,” he told parliament.

The Supreme Court has not released the reasoning behind its decision to overturn a twenty-year precedent.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the laws were a good first step after the High Court ruling.

“We have taken some important steps to keep the community safe. “We still think further steps need to be taken, but that is a debate for another day,” he said.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said community safety remains the top priority as the Government rushes through new laws to monitor those released.

Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government agreed in principle to the changes.

“The basis on which we are doing this is because we are in a position where this needs to be resolved immediately,” he told parliament.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young criticized the amendments as an “absolute disgrace” and an attack on democracy and the rule of law.

“I know there are members of the Labor Party hanging their heads in shame,” she said.