Mark Dreyfus slammed by judge for last-minute bid on convicted terrorist release

Mark Dreyfus’s office has been attacked for applying for a supervision order for a convicted terrorist with a ‘moderate to high risk of re-offending’ just six days before his release.

Convicted terrorist Nowroz Amin visits a boxing gym in Sydney on Monday. Picture: Liam Mendes

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’s office has been slammed for applying for a supervision order for a convicted terrorist with a “moderate to high risk of re­offending” just six days before his release, with a Supreme Court judge demanding an explanation for the “significant delay”.

Nowroz Amin, who spent five years in jail after pleading guilty to preparing for a terror attack in his parents’ homeland of Bangladesh, was released from custody on October 15.

One psychologist had reported the “most likely scenario” for Amin reoffending would be that he would join a terrorist organisation and the 32-year-old was vulnerable to influence, and at risk of indoctrination and relapse.

Amin had refused to participate in disengagement programs during his time in prison, most of which had been spend in Goulburn Jail’s high security Supermax division.

Despite having more than a year to prepare for Amin’s release, the Attorney-General left it until six days prior to the expiration of his sentence to apply for an “urgent” interim supervision order before he was released to the community.

The bungle resulted in the NSW Supreme Court releasing a practice note ordering that interim or extended supervision order proceedings “should be commenced at the earliest opportunity, and in any event should be commenced no later than three months prior to the expiration date of the defendant’s sentence”.

It comes as The Australian revealed on Monday that a last-minute bid to impose strict rules on another convicted terrorist, Ibrahim Ghazzawy, who planned to form an army at a Blue Mountains base and plotted to attack the headquarters of the Australian Federal Police, nearly failed because Mr Dreyfus’s legal officers did not have a case ready until three days before the Islamic extremist was to go free.

A spokeswoman for Mr Dreyfus told The Australian on Monday the “Attorney-General applies for post-sentence orders in accordance with the legislative framework”.

However, it was not until Oct­ober 9 that he filed a summons seeking an extended supervision order, six days before the expiry of Amin’s sentence.

The court heard the Attorney-General decided to apply for an order on September 28.

On October 9, NSW Supreme Court judge Richard Cavanagh said he was “sceptical” about explanations from the Attorney-General regarding a “significant delay” in the application of an interim supervision order for Amin, who had spoken about “cooking classes” during online conversations with people in Bangladesh referring to his attempts to learn how to make explosives.

Lawyers for Amin argued he would be “significantly prejudiced” in preparing an objection to the order.

Later that month, judge Richard Weinstein said he received “no full and satisfactory explanation” for the delay in bringing the application, ordering the ­Attorney-General to file one.

The Australian understands the affidavit filed cites workload, capacity, delays in preparing an extended report, a delay in briefing the Attorney-General, and that the Attorney-General’s Department was awaiting responses from other agencies as among the reasons for the delays.

“The explanation for the delay in bringing this application is somewhat vague and might be viewed as somewhat unsatisfactory … the explanation for the delay is general in nature and merely points to the fact that the plaintiff did not make any decision about pursuing an ESO until 28 September, 2023,” Justice Cavanagh said to the Supreme Court on October 9.

A judgment said two reports prepared by Corrective Services, in February 2022 and February 2023 made recommendations that Amin not be released to parole due to his refusal to participate in disengagement programs.

The reports recommended he be under community supervision and be given support to access services specific to his risk factors.