A violent criminal released from immigration detention following a controversial Supreme Court ruling has insisted he poses no ‘danger to the community’.
Gus Kuster, who was born in Papua New Guinea but claims Torres Strait Islander heritage, was locked up in immigration detention after spending the past two decades in and out of prison for crimes related to domestic violence, drugs, motor vehicles and weapons.
He spent the past five years in indefinite immigration detention after his native country refused to accept him.
Kuster, in his early 40s, is one of 81 immigration detainees released after a landmark Supreme Court ruling last Wednesday that overturned a decades-old policy of indefinitely detaining noncitizens if they could not be deported .
The mass release of asylum seekers was prompted by a refugee’s successful appeal to the Supreme Court last week who raped a 10-year-old boy.
Gus Kuster (pictured), born in Papua New Guinea but claiming Torres Strait Islander heritage, was held in immigration detention after spending the past two decades in and out of prison for domestic violence, drugs, motor vehicle and weapons-related offenses
Kuster claims that he and the other released prisoners are not a “danger to the community.”
The cohort includes three murderers, a paedophile, an elderly sex attacker and a hitman, all of whom will now live in the community.
Kuster, who arrived in Australia as a four-year-old, said he was relieved to be free and insisted he posed no threat to the general public.
“I’m happy to be back with my family, but the public needs to know what was done to us,” Kuster said. Nine newspapers.
“We have made mistakes, but we are not a danger to the community. We have families. Please allow us to heal in peace.”
The Labor government opposed the release of certain non-citizens, but was overruled by the court.
“Some of these people have committed disgusting crimes,” Home Secretary Clare O’Neil said during Question Time on Tuesday.
Home Secretary Clare O’Neil said the government opposes the release of certain non-citizens
“Some of them hurt people who are still here in our country. And it is those victims that we care about.
“I can tell Parliament that there is a single focus and a single priority that we are using to manage the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision, and that is the safety of the community of Australian citizens who elect us to this Parliament. ‘
Among the 81 released non-citizens are two Sudanese brothers, Juma and Zackaria Chol, who had their visas revoked by the former coalition government after they were convicted and jailed for fracturing a man’s skull with a baseball bat in March 2012.
The brothers, who both had extensive criminal records for minor offenses including disorderly conduct, trespassing and driving offences, were left stateless after being unable to return to war-torn Sudan.
They are reportedly staying in hotels in Perth and Sydney respectively, with their mother telling Nine newspapers she is happy about their release.
“I say Hallelujah!” she said.
William Yekrop, a former child soldier from South Sudan who was in and out of prison after being granted asylum in Australia at the age of 16, was also released.
A range of measures have been introduced to control released offenders, including restricting certain types of work and requiring them to report to authorities and share their personal details, including social media profiles.
They are reportedly supported by government subsidies.
Kuster’s lawyer, Alison Battisson of Human Rights for All, warned against “fomenting fear.”
“They (detainees) must be supported where necessary to reintegrate into the community and left alone to do so quietly,” Ms Battisson told Nine Newspapers.
Kuster previously told Ny Breaking Australia that he was “proud of my culture in Papua New Guinea, but even more proud of my Australian heritage.”
The Albanian government was accused of releasing 80 ‘hard criminals’ into the community during Question Time on Tuesday (photo, Anthony Albanese in Parliament)
“My great-grandfather was born in New South Wales and fought for Australia in Gallipoli,” he said in 2019 when threatened with deportation.
“My grandfather was also born in NSW and fought in the Second World War, and my father is a white Australian.”
The 40-year-old believes he should be a fourth-generation Australian as his father, Richard, brought him to Australia to ‘live like Australians’.
But because his mother is from Papua New Guinea and he was born there, the government refused.
‘How can this be so? “I came to Australia when I was three and I’m now 40 years old…I don’t understand how they can say I’m not Australian,” he said.