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Did
we send a man home to be shot? The Federal Court has expressed fears that an alleged accomplice to police assassinations might have been shot after a bureaucratic bungle by the Immigration Department led to his wrongful deportation to Algeria. The man, an Islamic resistance revolutionary who had been in detention at Port Hedland, was mistakenly deported three weeks before his appeal for refugee status was to be heard by a full Federal Court bench. Because no one in Perth knew of the deportation, the full court heard a whole day of argument on his appeal and reserved its decision before being told the next day he had gone. When the case was reconvened several days later, one of the judges, Justice Donald Hill, accused the Immigration Department of "absolute gross negligence" after reading its explanation for the mix-up. In considering how Karim Tchoylak might be returned to Australia, Justice Hill speculated that he might have already been shot. Then, on 11 November, the full court made unusually strong orders giving the man, if he could be found or turned up before 10 May, the leave to sue the government for a special visa to enter Australia and fight for his refugee status. In a swipe that will embarrass the government, the court has also required Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to officially answer Amnesty International's claim to the court that this was not an isolated case. Amnesty claims that on at least two previous occasions asylum seekers were wrongly removed from Australia. "As this action has been taken in three unrelated cases in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, it would appear there may be an endemic, systemic problem rather than a one-off accident," Amnesty's John Clugston wrote in an email submitted to the court. Through his spokesman, Mr Ruddock said it would be inappropriate to comment because the matter was still before the court. With the time allowed by the Federal Court, Amnesty is now reportedly working through its contacts in Africa to find Mr Tchoylak on behalf of his Perth lawyer Antony Siopis. Through its lawyer, R.L. Le Miere, QC, the government apologised and explained that there was a mistaken belief that litigation concerning Mr Tchoylak had concluded. The minister and the Attorney-General had been informed, he said, and the department had taken measures to prevent any reoccurrence. But the government also made it clear it did not intend looking for Mr Tchoylak, who was repatriated to Algeria on 13 August, and would oppose his return. Mr Tchoylak, believed to be in his late 20s, arrived in Australia on a boat in July, 1997, and went into detention. In January that year, he had returned to his home to find it surrounded by police. He went into hiding, but his father and brothers were taken into custody for a month and interrogated and tortured. With help, he fled Algeria in May 1997 to Tunisia, where he flew to Malaysia and then boarded a boat to Australia. After applying for refugee status, he was interviewed by an Immigration Department official and said he had been a member of the Front Islamic de Salut (Islamic Salvation Front), or FIS, an illegal organisation in Algeria since 1992. He told the official that he conducted surveillance on police officers who were targets for assassination, but had never killed anyone himself. He was refused an Australian protection visa on the grounds that he had committed a crime or crimes against humanity, barred under Refugee Convention. After a review in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, this decision was upheld by its president, Justice Jane Mathews, in August 1998. At the appeal before the full Federal Court, Mr Siopis argued that Mr Tchoylak's activities did not fit the definition of "crimes against humanity" because they were directed against police, an arm of the Algerian state, and not against civilians. The FIS was formed in 1989 and was poised to win a general election when a military coup saw the organisation banned and forced underground. Since then, the group has waged a terror campaign against the state in which up to 60,000 people have been killed.
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