‘Cruel’ to keep terrorist detained, says Abdul Nacer Benbrika’s lawyer

Abdul Nacer Benbrika’s lawyer has lashed out at the boundless ‘cruelty’ of Australia’s immigration system in keeping the convicted terrorist detained, saying he is ‘regretful’ for his actions.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika’s lawyer has lashed out at the boundless “cruelty” of Australia’s immigration system in keeping the convicted terrorist detained, saying he is “regretful” for his actions and simply wants to go home to his family.

The High Court last week ­restored the citizenship of the ­notorious terror cell leader, who has served 18 years in jail after being convicted in 2005 of being the spiritual leader of terror cells that plotted to attack landmarks in Melbourne and Sydney.

After the decision was handed down, Benbrika’s lawyer Isabelle Skaburskis took aim at those who “want so much to hate” and called for sympathy for people in ­Benbrika’s position.

“We’ve been in court for over three years. We’ve lost in the High Court once, the Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, and the Supreme Court twice,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

“All this man wants is to get out of solitary confinement and go home to his family. It finally looks like he might get to. (I dare not hope too hard though, ­because I also know that their cruelty knows no bounds).”

Ms Skaburskis is a human rights lawyer, most ­recently representing alleged terrorist Neil Prakash, who has been accused of leading a global effort to recruit for Islamic State.

She said that her role as a criminal defence lawyer was to speak to her clients about the things that are “most ashamed about, most regretful for, and try to understand what it is that made them act in the way that they did”.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika at the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne.

“And then I help them. I direct them to treatment. And they ­engage. Because nobody wants to be where they are – least of all them. And they will do what it takes to make things right, knowing that they cannot change the past, but knowing that they might be able to change the future,” she said.

“The one thing I cannot understand, no matter how hard I try, is how or why so many people want so much to hate – without insight, without shame, without wanting to change.”

Benbrika has launched court action in the Victorian Supreme Court seeking his release, with his lawyers disputing the validity of the terrorism assessment tool that experts use to advise the court that he posed an ongoing risk.

That matter had been put on hold while the High Court case was resolved, but may be fast-tracked to be heard before his ­release on December 23.

Ms Skaburskis told The Australian that if Benbrika was ­to be let free, “he will be released on onerous and extensive conditions of supervision in the community that will also ensure continued access to treatment”.

Asked whether someone like Benbrika should ever have their citizenship stripped from them in the future, she said: “I actually think that everyone should be given a chance to return to their family after they’ve paid their debt to society and the court has assessed that they’re no longer a risk.”