Murder, curfew breaches: detainees Kimbengere Gosoge, Emmanuel Saki allowed to walk free

A former immigration detainee already convicted of a string of offences since his release has walked free, amid revelations a man charged with murder was freed last month.

Kimbengere Gosoge pleaded guilty to six charges of breaching visa conditions.

A former immigration detainee already convicted of a string of offences since his release from indefinite detention has walked free despite committing multiple curfew breaches, after commonwealth prosecutors opted against insisting he remain behind bars.

Burundi-born Kimbengere Gosoge on Tuesday was handed a one-year jail sentence for each of the six charges laid against him this month for breaching his curfew and failing to maintain his electronic monitoring device.

Each charge carried a minimum jail term of a year, but magistrate Robert Young opted to suspended the sentences for two years. It means Gosoge will serve the time only if he commits another offence in that period. He was also fined $2000.

Mr Young said the curfew and monitoring conditions introduced by the government for former detainees had been brought in to promote community safety.

“There must be a strong message to the accused, and to any other person, that these matters are to be complied with,” he said.

But the magistrate noted commonwealth prosecutors had offered no particular position on Gosoge’s sentencing.

The Albanese government came under further pressure over its handling of detainees on Tuesday night following revelations a man charged with murder was freed from immigration detention last month by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal as he was deemed “a low risk of reoffending”. Emmanuel Saki, 29, has been charged with murder over the stabbing death of 22-year-old Bosco Minyurano on May 12. AAT deputy president Stephen Boyle overturned a 2019 decision to strip the Sudanese man of his visa and he was released from immigration detention in early April.

Gosoge is the first detainee sentenced for breaching his visa conditions under the laws rushed through parliament in the wake of last year’s release of 151 detainees from indefinite detention.

During sentencing, it was revealed Gosoge had already been convicted of another three crimes – trespass, possession of amphetamines and stealing – since his release late last year.

Mr Young also said the man had a long criminal record before his visa was cancelled on character grounds in 2017, including an 18-month prison sentence for burglary, and he had a record of noncompliance with community-based orders, bail conditions, police orders and move-on notices. Gosoge’s lawyer, Rhys Mola, had earlier argued his client should be released immediately, citing the “draconian” conditions imposed on detainees and the years his client spent in unlawful detention.

Mr Mola also said the electronic monitoring and curfew conditions imposed on Gosoge and many of the other 151 detainees released following last year’s NZYQ decision by the High Court were “disproportionate and punitive”.

They were, he said, the sort of measures that should only be imposed after careful consideration by a court, and not imposed arbitrarily by a government.

Mr Mola told the court his client’s offending was not at the top end of the scale – a claim Mr Young ultimately agreed with – and had been motivated by concerns about his safe at the time at his temporary accommodation at the Stirling Arms Hotel in Guildford.

He said his client had been assaulted and robbed since his release, and had required surgery to his head as a result of that attack. He has a scar across his head and continues to suffer headaches.

Gosoge, Mr Mola said, had acted “irresponsibly but not nefariously” in breaching his conditions, and was not trying to abscond or disengage with Home Affairs. He said Gosoge’s efforts to advise Home Affairs of his change of address were complicated by an inability to get a SIM card for his phone due a lack of sufficient identification. Instead, he had to use a phone box and an intermediary at MercyCare to try to communicate his change in circumstances.

He also noted Gosoge had already spent 21 days in prison since his arrest, on top of six years in immigration the High Court had now found were unlawful, and said those factors meant he should be immediately released.

“Mr Gosoge is worthy of the court’s mercy and leniency, and is deserving of one last opportunity to get his life back on track,” Mr Mola said.

Gosoge, Mr Mola said, was remorseful and accepted his responsibility for the breaches. “He did breach his visa conditions, that’s not in dispute, but Your Honour should take into account the prevailing circumstances around those breaches,” he said.

Mr Mola acknowledged his client’s previous criminal record would work against him, but argued Gosoge had not been sentenced to jail since 2008. He had been thrown into immigration detention in 2017 when his visa was cancelled on character grounds after he was given a six-month community-based order for a charge of being armed or pretending to be armed in a way that may cause fear and one charge of burglary, and was fined $500 for three counts of stealing and one count of breaching a bail undertaking.

Mr Mola said there was no evidence to demonstrate the released detainees were any greater risk of reoffending than other former prisoners in the community, and that, as Gosoge’s case showed, not all those released from indefinite detention were murderers, rapists or pedophiles.

The court heard Gosoge had fled the east African nation of Burundi with his younger brother after their father was killed in the civil war. The pair boarded a container ship in South Africa, and sailed to China and The Philippines before arriving at the Kwinana Bulk Terminal south of Perth.

His brother drowned at a beach just two weeks after he was granted a visa, and Mr Mola said his client had struggled to recover from the trauma of that incident.

Gosoge had gone on to marry and have two children. Gosoge’s wife, Mr Mola said, had “struggled with parenthood” and the children had been taken into state care. His wife is believed to still be in Melaleuca women’s prison.

Prior to his visa being cancelled and him being put in immigration detention, Gosoge had been working as a commercial butcher and employed at an abattoir in regional WA.

During his six years in detention, Gosoge had been shuffled between Christmas Island, Villawood and Yongah Hill detention centres. Since Gosoge’s release from detention in November, Mr Mola said his client had not been provided with the support he needed to incorporate himself back into society.

He said Gosoge had committed to engage with support programs to assist him in dealing with his trauma, and he wanted to rebuild his relationship with his older son, who is no longer in state care.

A term of imprisonment, Mr Mola said, would carry a significant financial cost to the community and would hurt his client’s employment prospects.

The AFP prosecutor said Gosoge’s offending showed a disregard for the conditions of his visa.

She said the multiple breaches by Gosoge in a short period of time represented the sort of conduct the legislation was aimed at punishing. Gosoge is one of several former detainees to have been charged with breaching their visa conditions but the first to be sentenced.

Gosoge, who appeared in court via video link from Hakea prison, was not required to speak for much of the hearing.

He said only “yes, Your Honour, I understand that” when asked by the magistrate if he understood the conditions of his suspended sentence.