Key Points
- Egyptian Sayed Abdellatif has been in immigration detention for 11 years after arriving in Australia by boat.
- The Egyptian government tried Abdellatif in absentia along with 106 others suspected of terrorist activity.
- In July, ASIO said it no longer has concerns about Abdellatif being a security risk.
After more than 11 years in Australia's immigration detention system, the season is anything but festive for Egyptian asylum seeker Sayed Abdellatif.
"Every Christmas I feel the same, that I am finally going to be free and then at the end, I start another year as if I'm in another closed loop," he told AAP from the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney.
Indefinite immigration detention was ruled unlawful and unconstitutional in a High Court case in November, prompting the federal government to release about 150 detainees into the community.
They must abide by conditions including ankle-bracelet monitoring and strict curfews.
Abdellatif, who has committed no crime, was not released as part of the cohort.
"After November 8, I feel extreme injustice," he said.
"I am no threat to the community and I have the clearance to prove it - I haven't committed any crimes in or outside of Australia.
Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
After a brief period on Christmas Island followed by a South Australian detention facility, he has since been held at Villawood.
In 1992, the now 52-year-old moved to Albania to work with an Islamic relief organisation. But that stint proved costly because the Egyptian government tried him in absentia along with 106 others suspected of terrorist activity.
The widely discredited case known as the Returnees from Albania relied on confessions extracted through torture.
Interpol issued a red notice for Abdellatif, which ASIO subsequently drew upon in its security assessments of his case.
The red notice was dropped in 2018 after investigations by the international policing body.
After adverse security assessments by ASIO in 2014, 2018 and 2020, Abdellatif was given a non-prejudicial security assessment by the intelligence agency in July 2023, meaning it does not have concerns about him as a security risk.
ASIO and the Home Affairs department both told AAP they would not comment on individual cases.
But an ASIO spokesperson said the intelligence body stood by the accuracy and integrity of its earlier assessments.
They noted assessments took into account the ideology and capability of the individual as well as the prevailing security environment.
Darryl Li, an anthropologist and legal scholar at the University of Chicago who has researched Arab foreign fighters and aid workers in Eastern Europe, said Abdellatif's case typified human rights breaches.
"We have seen over the past two decades how the transnational hunt for 'jihadists' has licensed all sorts of laws and policies that erode fundamental rights for all," he said.
"For exiled political activists, overseas aid activity became one way to escape, but they also became objects of suspicion."
Abdellatif's case was listed to come before the High Court on 15 December but was removed a day earlier, with his lawyers told it would be heard in 2024.
For the father of six, it was another knockback in a series of domestic and international legal hurdles he's had to jump.
"They're all broken," he said of his wife and children, who were detained with him for four years before being released in the community.
"When they saw that I didn't get out after the clearance they realised I might never come out at all.
He fears they've given up hope.
"What should I tell them?" Abdellatif said.
"I came when my youngest son was one-and-a-half years old and now he is 13-and-a-half years old.
"I wish to know the answer of why I'm still inside."
