Aliyawar Yawari charged with indecently assaulting SA woman after being released from immigration detention

The PM is facing a major political crisis after a convicted criminal recently released from immigration detention allegedly sexually assaulted an Adelaide woman on the weekend.

• More freed detainees living in SA

A convicted sexual predator once labelled a “danger to the Australian community” has been charged with indecently assaulting another woman in SA just weeks after a High Court decision led to his release from immigration detention.

On Monday, 65-year-old Aliyawar Yawari faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court charged with two counts of indecent assault – just three weeks after the convicted woman-basher was released from detention in Western Australia.

He did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody to return to court in January.

Documents released by the court revealed Yawari had been staying at the Pavlos Motel on Main North Rd in Pooraka.

SA Police allege he indecently assaulted a woman at the motel on Saturday evening. The owner of the motel, who did not wish to be named, said Yawari had checked in on Monday, November 27 and there had been “no issues” with him until the arrest.

The owner said he was not aware of an incident until he saw police lights and sirens outside the reception.

Recently released detainee Aliyawar Yawari has been charged with indecently assaulting a woman in Pooraka. Picture: Paul Garvey

Outside the Pavlos Motel.

A room inside the Pavlos Motel.

He also said Mr Yawari had been taken to hospital “four or five days ago” with back problems.

Yawari was wearing an ankle tracking bracelet after his release.
The motel owner also told The Advertiser that Mr Yawari’s stay was arranged by Life Without Barriers, a support services organisation, which has been contacted for comment.

Before coming to Adelaide after his release, he was staying in a motel in Perth, where he told media he was “happy” to be free after being jailed for four years and then put into immigration detention.

“I just want a new job,” he said. An SA Police spokesman, when asked if Yawari was being monitored once in Adelaide, declined to comment and directed inquiries to the Australian Border Force.

The ABF was contacted for comment.

It is understood Yawari immigrated to Australia from Afghanistan in 2010, and soon found a job in Bordertown.

In 2013, the father of seven was convicted of assault but acquitted of rape and received a suspended prison sentence.

Two months later, he was charged for indecently assaulting a woman before hitting her in the neck with a walking stick and was found guilty of indecent assault.

Judge Paul Cuthbertson, in sentencing in 2016, called Yawari a “danger to the Australian community” and an “ongoing risk to women”.

He jailed Yawari for three years and 11 months, with a non-parole period of two years and eight months. He was transferred to immigration detention where he remained until his release last month.

In a separate incident, former detainee Mohammed Ali Nadari, 45, was charged with drug possession by NSW Police after officers stopped him in the Western Sydney suburb of Merrylands at 3pm on Saturday. “Police will allege in court the man threw a number of resealable bags on the ground containing a substance believed to be cannabis,” a police statement said.

Federal police outside Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre in Western Australia. Picture: Rebecca Le May

The incidents have prompted Opposition leader Peter Dutton to call for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil to be stood down.

“The reason these criminals are in the community is because of the ministers’ incompetence,” Mr Dutton said.

“Their decisions have resulted in further Australians being (allegedly) harmed. It’s a disgrace. No further excuses.”

There have been 148 non-citizens – including rapists, murderers and drug traffickers – released since November 8 when the High Court ruled a stateless Rohingya man, known as NZYQ, convicted of child sex offences could not be indefinitely detained. The two men just charged have not faced such serious charges.

Australian Border Force and Australian Federal Police launched Operation Aegis to monitor the released detainees, and were forced to launch a huge manhunt last week when one became “uncontactable” for three days.

Opposition leader and former home affairs minister Peter Dutton. Picture: Richard Dobson

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services Andrew Giles. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Eight days after the court ruling, Labor rushed through emergency laws to mandate ankle monitoring bracelets and curfews for the released detainees, and plans to this week pass a bill that would put the most serious offenders back behind bars.

Under the proposed preventative detention regime the Immigration Minister will be able to apply for a court to order the imprisonment of a detainee previously convicted for a crime that carries a sentence of at least seven years in Australia who is still deemed at risk of reoffending.

The detention orders would last for three years, reviewed by the court annually, and a government would be able to reapply for a new order as the previous one expired. A federal government spokesman said he could not comment on individual cases.

“Peter Dutton and the Opposition say they back a preventive detention model based on the (Terrorism Offender regime) - now they have the chance to prove it,” the spokesman said.

“They only have one chance to back up their talk by working constructively with the government to pass this legislation this week.”

State Attorney-General Kyam Maher’s office referred inquiries to the federal government. SA Commissioner for Victims’ Rights, Sarah Quick, said: “Each survivor’s response to an assault will be unique but knowing an assault might have been prevented is likely to compound feelings of anger and trauma.”