- Six more arrested criminals released
- Sam Ibrahim wants to join them
- READ MORE: Origins of detainees
Home Secretary Clare O’Neil has admitted she is unable to prevent detainees from being released after another six were freed following the High Court ruling.
About 93 detainees have been released since the Supreme Court ruled last Wednesday that it was unlawful to keep them in custody indefinitely.
Some of those released have committed serious violent and sexual crimes against women and children, as well as prominent organized crime and gang figures.
Another 250 immigration detainees, including some who have done “deplorable and abhorrent things,” could be released into the community next year.
They come from a larger cohort of 340 people who have been in immigration detention for more than a year.
Notorious underworld figure Sam Ibrahim, who is being held in a Perth detention center as the government tries to deport him to Lebanon, has indicated he believes the ruling could apply to him.
Former Nomads cycling boss Sam Ibrahim believes recent Supreme Court ruling should free him from detention in Perth
Ms O’Neil has stated that although there are 340 people who have been in immigration detention for more than a year, it is unlikely that the High Court ruling will apply to all of them.
Ms O’Neil said: ‘If it were up to me, all these people would still be in custody.’
“Some of these people have done deplorable, disgusting things, and I don’t want these people in our country,” she told Sky News.
“I have to follow the law, though.”
Ibrahim, a former Nomads biker boss jailed over an arms and drug trafficking ring, has told his lawyer to write to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles demanding he be released.
The emails state that Ibrahim’s detention is ‘unlawful’.
“I just hope that common sense prevails,” Ibrahim said The Daily Telegraph.
‘I’ve been here for three years, it’s like I’m serving another sentence. How long do they plan to keep me here? Forever?’
Ibrahim, 55, said if released he would return to his wife and children in Sydney and abide by the restrictions placed on him by authorities.
The Albanian government has made efforts to respond to community concerns since it was announced that murderers and rapists would be allowed back into the community.
The Supreme Court ruling has raised community concerns over the release of rapists and murderers into the general population
After the Supreme Court ruling, the government rushed to pass legislation to impose strict visa restrictions on those released, including requiring them to wear electronic ankle bracelets or other similar devices.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton accused the government of not being ready for the Supreme Court ruling and sending mixed messages.
“Legislation should have been in draft form in anticipation of the Supreme Court outcome so that these people would not be released into the community and would not pose a threat,” he said Wednesday.
However, Ms O’Neil said the government had no choice but to release the prisoners
“Anyone with a basic understanding of the legal system in this country would know that what Peter Dutton has been strutting around Parliament this week saying the government must do is completely impossible for us,” Minister O’Neil said.
“We have a decision from the High Court of Australia that has overturned 20 years of legal precedent… And it is my duty as a minister, as much as anyone else, to follow the law.”
Home Secretary Clare O’Neil says she has done everything possible to keep the community safe