A fourth asylum seeker has been arrested following a controversial Supreme Court ruling, as Anthony Albanese faces a full-blown crisis over the issue.
The Sudanese-born man, 45, was arrested by Australian Federal Police officers at a Melbourne hotel on Wednesday and charged with stealing luggage at Melbourne airport from a sleeping traveler and breaching a curfew.
He has been charged with one count of theft, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and one count of failure to comply with a curfew, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $93,900 fine.
The man was expected to appear in court in Melbourne on Wednesday.
He is the fourth asylum seeker to be charged with criminal offences, following the Supreme Court's ruling on November 8 that indefinite detention was unlawful. This allowed 148 dangerous non-citizens to be released from detention.
Aliyawar Yawari, 65, is a convicted sex offender who was labeled a 'danger to the Australian community' by a judge after he attacked three women and kicked in a mother's door
Three other released prisoners – including a pedophile and a sex offender – have been arrested and charged in separate incidents.
Afghan refugee and convicted sex offender Aliyawar Yawari, 65, was charged with indecently assaulting a woman at a hotel in South Australia on Saturday.
He was branded a 'danger to the Australian community' by a judge after attacking three women and kicking in the door of an elderly mother.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Ali Nadari, 45, was arrested on drug charges in New South Wales and convicted pedophile Emran Dad, 33, was arrested in Dandenong, southeast of Melbourne, for allegedly contacting minors on social media and breaching his reporting obligations violated. .
Dad, who is from Afghanistan, is alleged to have run a prostitution ring targeting underage girls in state care and was jailed for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in exchange for cigarettes.
The arrests mark a significant escalation in the crisis facing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is accused of failing a major leadership test on the issue.
More to come.