Saddam personal bodyguard living in Australia - media (Reuters) Updated: 2005-12-05 10:43
One of Saddam Hussein's former personal bodyguards is living in Australia
after initially being refused a visa, local media said on Monday, prompting
criticism of the country's immigration system.
The Sydney Morning Herald said Oday Adnan Al Tekriti, 38, a member of
Saddam's family and a major in his personal security force, had been living in
Australia for six years.
The Herald said Tekriti, who also worked for Saddam's son Qusay tracking down
dissidents, was initially refused a visa because of concerns he had committed
crimes against humanity. The decision was overturned on appeal and Tekriti is
now married to an Australian doctor and living in the southern city of Adelaide.
The newspaper said at least 30 men seeking asylum in Australia have been
refused visas over the past 10 years on grounds they committed crimes against
humanity, but many have remained in Australia for years due to a slow appeals
process.
News that Tekriti is living in Australia prompted the Labor opposition to
claim the country's immigration system had failed. It came on the day the
government is expected to pass new anti-terror laws aimed at combating
"home-grown" terrorism.
Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke said that Australia's immigration
character test was meant to protect the country from people who are considered
dangerous.
"If the reports today have any validity, then you've got to say somebody who
had the job for Saddam Hussein of chasing dissidents falls on the dangerous side
of the equation," Burke told reporters.
"He should not have passed a character test. If this is the outcome, the
system has got to have collapsed," he said.
The government was not immediately available for comment.
Australia, a staunch U.S. ally with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, has never
suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil. The country has been on medium
security alert since shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United
States.
One state political leader has described the new anti-terror laws expected to
pass through parliament on Monday as "draconian" but necessary, but they have
been widely criticised by civil rights and law groups. The Law Council of
Australia launched a national advertising campaign on Monday opposing the laws.
"The government is using the threat of terrorism to introduce laws that put
our most basic civil liberties under threat. The ramifications have the
potential to be as terrifying as terrorism itself," said the council's full-page
newspaper advertisement
The new laws will allow police to detain suspects for seven days without
charge, use electronic tracking devices to keep tabs on them and make support
for insurgents in countries such as Iraq an offence punishable by a seven-year
jail sentence.
The laws were proposed after the July 7 London bombings by a group of young
British Muslims.
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