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Australian government wrongly cancelled citizenship of man on death row in Iraq, family claim (credits:google)
Ahmad Merhi, who is suspected of joining Islamic State and travelled from Sydney to Syria, claims he is now stateless as he awaits execution.
Ahmad Merhi is currently serving a death sentence in jail in Iraq after being found guilty of terrorism.
Ahmad Merhi is currently serving a death sentence in jail in Iraq after being found guilty of terrorism.
An Australian man was mistakenly stripped of his citizenship by the last Coalition government while he was on death row in Iraq and waiting to be hanged on terrorism-related charges, according to the victim’s family and attorneys.
Ahmad Merhi, a Sydney native, visited Syria in 2014. He was apprehended in the nation in 2017.
Following that, US soldiers sent Merhi, 30, to Iraq in one of several prisoner exchanges that have alarmed human rights organisations.
View of the High Court of Australia in Canberra, which ruled that a minister cannot revoke the citizenship of dual nationals for possible terrorism.
Merhi claims he was forced into confessing to terrorism-related charges in Iraq, and in November 2018 he was given a hanging sentence.
He was accused of being a member of the Islamic State who was receiving a monthly bond, having completed weapons training, and working for the group’s “Health Bureau,” according to a translation of court documents from Iraq. Merhi contends that his conviction was incorrect.
Merhi claims that after being sentenced, he received a letter informing him that his citizenship had been revoked. He claims he has never held Lebanese citizenship, despite being eligible.
Invoking duties under international law regarding statelessness and a recent high court judgement, Merhi’s family and Australian lawyer are pleading with the Albanese administration to reverse the cancellation.
His attorney, Mohammad Khan, claims he hasn’t even been able to get the government to certify that the citizenship has been revoked or under what legal provisions.
When Guardian Australia questioned the Department of Home Affairs about whether Mehri’s citizenship had been revoked, the department responded that it did not comment on specific instances.
Merhi made an effort to mail Khan the cancellation letter from Iraq, but it was never delivered.
The department of home affairs allegedly called Merhi’s mother to inform her of the cancellation, but she never received a written confirmation.
Clare O’Neil, the new minister of home affairs, deferred to her department in response to specific inquiries regarding the case. Among them were whether Merhi’s case came up during a conversation between the prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, and his Iraqi counterpart, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, last month, and whether she would help the family determine whether Merhi’s transfer from Syria to Iraq was legal and approved by the Australian government.
Instead of responding to the inquiries, the Department of Home Affairs stated that it did not comment on specific cases but was instead analysing the consequences of the most recent high court decision.
Khan wrote to O’Neil on Monday, pleading with her to respond within 14 days after he addressed a letter to the previous administration that went unanswered.
Depending on the response, he may decide to file a legal challenge to the judgement.
Khan contends that even though the recent high court decision only addressed people whose citizenship had been revoked in accordance with section 36B of the act—a portion under which only two citizenships had been revoked—it still gives grounds for challenging all cancellations.
He thinks Merhi’s citizenship was wrongfully revoked because the government mistakenly thought he was a dual citizen, similar to what happened to ISIS fighter Neil Prakash.
Merhi is suspected by police of helping Shadi Mohammad, the sister of a man who killed Curtis Cheng in 2015, to flee to Syria, as well as of arranging for Islamic State supporters in Australia to transfer money to the Middle East, according to sentencing remarks pertaining to the case of an alleged associate. This is in addition to his alleged involvement with Islamic State in Syria.
In some past media accounts and court filings, he was referred to as Ahmed Merhi.
Unnamed family member claimed that Merhi should stand trial in Australia regardless of the charges against him.
She added that the administration should clarify the reasons underlying the citizenship revocation and whether it knew beforehand that Merhi was being transferred from Syria to Iraq by US soldiers.
“The events involving Ahmad are not transparent. There are no solutions. How did they get him? How did he get to Iraq? What his daily whereabouts will be?
When the couple was apprehended by Kurdish SDF forces in late 2017, Merhi’s relatives claimed that he had been attempting to flee Syria for Turkey with his heavily pregnant wife.
Merhi is currently detained at the vast Nasiriyah jail, also known as “the Whale” because it suffocates inmates.
With the exception of learning that his citizenship had been revoked and that he had been turned down for legal aid funds, he had not had much contact with Australian authorities.
Merhi has reportedly only had a few opportunities to speak with his family in the more than three years since he was given a death sentence.
In the brief phone calls he has with his mother roughly every three months, Merhi, who lost part of a leg in an airstrike, mainly updates her on his health, asks if she’s heard anything from the authorities, and professes his love for her.
The family is tormented by the fear that they would learn Merhi has been put to death on the news in the weeks between calls, which has been especially difficult for his mother.
It has been eight years since he last lived at home, according to his family, when he won a trip to the hajj in a local mosque’s raffle.
They were a little surprised that the labourer, who liked girls, parties, and beach vacations, intended to go on the pilgrimage.
When Merhi claims that his citizenship was revoked, Peter Dutton, the leader of the opposition and then-minister of home affairs, was absent. When contacted for comment, his office did not provide one.
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