Slain woman’s family in detention order outrage

The family of a woman strangled in 1997 by a dangerous killer released into the community because of the High Court’s NZYQ decision asks why no preventative detention orders have yet been made.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The family of a woman murdered in 1997 by a killer released into the community following the “NZYQ” High Court case in Nov­ember has expressed deep concern the government has not yet sought any preventative detention orders to protect Australians.

Tony Kellisar is escorted into Supreme Court in Melbourne in 1999. Picture: Simon Dallinger

Tony Kellisar strangled his wife, Svetlana Podgoyetsky, in Melbourne in November 1997, then drove the body back to Sydney where he tried to dispose of it in a wheelie bin using hydrochloric acid.

Andrew Katz, 65, who married Ms Podgoyetsky’s sister, told The Australian on Thursday: “When does somebody qualify (for a preventative detention order)?

“He (Kellisar) murdered somebody in cold blood. Then he drives the body back and disposes of it in acid … How does that person qualify to be released into the community?”

Kellisar, who arrived in Australia as an Iranian refugee in 1990, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 22 years in 1999. Following his release in 2021, he lived in immigration detention and fought against the cancellation of his protection visa given the serious nature of his crime.

Mr Katz said the family had been informed Kellisar was released on November 24 following the High Court’s landmark ­November 8 decision.

Svetlana Podgoyetsky and Tony Kellisar.

He urged the government to apply for a preventative detention order to protect the community including his two adopted daughters, Serrah and Bianca Katz, who were left without a mother when their former stepfather killed her.

In December, Labor rushed special legislation through parliament allowing the government to seek preventative detention orders to re-detain serious offenders who had been released.

Under the new law, a court would need to be “satisfied to a high degree of probability, on the basis of admissible evidence, that the offender poses an unacceptable risk of seriously harming the community by committing a serious violent or sexual offence”.

With no applications having yet been made, Mr Katz told The Australian he suspected the rushed legislation was merely a “political stunt … to get this off the headlines before Christmas”.

The 149 released detainees include seven convicted of murder or attempted murder, 37 sex ­offenders – including pedophiles – and another 72 convicted of assault and violent offending, kidnapping or armed robbery.

“They (government) had two months to do something and get themselves in motion,” Mr Katz said. “I could sit down … with a couple of Jack Daniels and … draft legislation that would comply with the Constitution to put these guys behind bars.

“They have the Solicitor-General and thousands of bureaucrats and they have not made one move to protect the Australian public … (Home Affairs Minister) Clare O’Neil and (Immigration Minister) Andrew Giles should hang their hands in shame.”

Mr Giles told parliament on Thursday: “Those applications, I can assure the House, are under way.” He has stressed there is a “very high threshold that is required to make a successful application for an order of this kind”.

Mr Katz said Podgoyetsky’s brother, Vladimir, had received an email on December 1 from the Department of Justice and Community Safety in Victoria. It revealed Kellisar had been released on November 24, fitted with an electronic monitoring advice and was in Western Australia.

But Mr Katz also said there had been no further substantive updates. “For all I know he (Kellisar) could be in a car across the street from our home right this minute … What protection do we have here as a family to stop him turning up on the doorstep?”

In parliament, Peter Dutton revealed he had spoken to Mr Katz and asked Mr Giles why the family had not been contacted by the government. Mr Giles said he would “very pleased to speak with any affected family members immediately after question time”.

But The Australian on Thursday confirmed Vladimir Podgoyetsky had written to Mr Giles on September 12 and there had been contact with the family.