How brutal bashing of Ninette Simons started NZYQ cohort fiasco

Hundreds of detainees, known as the NZYQ cohort, were released following a High Court ruling, including 14 murderers and attempted murderers and 90 sex offenders. Many have gone on to commit further offences. Here’s where it started.

Ninette Simons, the victim of an assault and burglary in the Perth suburb of Girrawheen. Picture: WA Police

It was a crime that shocked the nation. The brutal bashing of Ninette Simons in Perth that left the 73-year-old grandmother’s face bloody and bruised. The assailants robbed Mrs Simons and her husband of $200,000 worth of possessions.

One of her alleged attackers, Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, was part of a cohort released after the High Court ruled indefinite detention was unlawful in 2023.

The case concerned a Rohingya man known as NZYQ who had been detained indefinitely after serving a prison sentence for raping a 10-year-old boy in Australia.

He’d finished his jail stint but Australia didn’t want the convicted sex offender in the community. Neither did any other country. Unable to return to Myanmar, NZYQ remained in immigration detention as part of a two decades long legal precedent for dealing with effectively stateless offenders.

Ninette Simons, the victim of an assault and burglary in the Perth suburb of Girrawheen.

Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, allegedly attacked Ninette Simons. Picture: Facebook

High Court chief justice Stephen Gageler on May 30 2023 ruled that the indefinite detention of NZYQ was unlawful, a legal decision that almost immediately triggered the release of 149 people.

Since then 291 detainees now known as the NZYQ cohort have been released, including 14 murderers and attempted murderers and 90 sex offenders.

Many have gone on to commit further offences.

The NZYQ cohort is a problem for the Albanese government that will likely end up costing the public purse hundreds of millions of dollars and could hurt them at the ballot box.

In a desperate bid to turn around the baddest of a bad situation, the government passed legislation in November last year allowing them to pay a country to take the former NZYQ detainees.

The first attempt at using the powers, a deal struck with Nauru to take three former detainees, has hit a hurdle.

A legal challenge that claims the protection visa of one of the detainees was cancelled unlawfully has been filed in the High Court and the planned deportation has been delayed.

What that means for government efforts to remove the NZYQ cohort and community safety remains to be seen.

Originally published as How brutal bashing of Ninette Simons started NZYQ cohort fiasco