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Judge’s order frees overstayer

By Ant / 8 November 2007

According to the NZ Herald today:

An Iranian overstayer and convicted bigamist who has waged a 10-year battle to stay in New Zealand has been freed from prison after a judge ruled that continued detention breached his human rights.

The High Court judge ordered the release of Iranian asylum-seeker Amir Hoshang Mohebbi, who had been in jail almost four years under a law passed to keep him there.

 Webcontent Image Jpg Amir1Mohebbi was released after an application for bail was heard in the High Court in August. The Government opposed the application.

  • Mohebbi was convicted of bigamy after he married New Zealand-resident Iranian Jaran Ahmadian in 1998 while still married to his first wife in Iran. His then wife fled to Australia and obtained a protection order against him.
  • His case sparked a rushed amendment to the Immigration Act in 2003 allowing continued detention of overstayers who could not be deported to their home country.
  • Last night Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove said Parliament would need to look at the case.

For the whole article click here

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This site is run by the Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church.

We seek to nurture justice spirituality and imagination, and engage in advocacy in all areas of life, overcoming poverty and transforming violence.

We encourage people to think and live “justly”, and emphasise debate and action on local, national and global issues.

Although we are Anglican, our vision isn’t so much about being Anglican. It’s about living justly. Justice is about how you live your life, and being just where we are. Working together, we can all flourish.

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