Masood v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs [2001] FCA 405

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Masood v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [2001] FCA 405 AHMAD MALIK MASOOD v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS NO S 78 of 2000 O'LOUGHLIN J ADELAIDE 11 APRIL 2001

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SOUTH AUSTRALIA DISTRICT REGISTRY S 78 OF 2000

BETWEEN: AHMAD MALIK MASOOD

APPLICANT

AND: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS

RESPONDENT

JUDGE: O'LOUGHLIN J

DATE OF ORDER: 11 APRIL 2001

WHERE MADE: ADELAIDE

THE COURT ORDERS THAT: 1. The application be dismissed. 2. The applicant pay the respondent's costs which costs are to be taxed in default of agreement. Note: Settlement and entry of orders is dealt with in Order 36 of the Federal Court Rules.

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SOUTH AUSTRALIA DISTRICT REGISTRY S 78 OF 2000

BETWEEN: AHMAD MALIK MASOOD

APPLICANT

AND: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS

RESPONDENT

JUDGE: O'LOUGHLIN J

DATE: 11 APRIL 2001

PLACE: ADELAIDE

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT 1 The applicant in these proceedings, Mr Ahmad Malik Masood, is a citizen of Pakistan. He was born on 15 May 1962 and, at the age of thirty-five, he arrived in Australia on 19 November 1997. Within a few days, he lodged an application for a protection visa with the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs pursuant to the provisions contained in the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) ("the Act"). On 23 December 1997, a delegate of the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs refused his application. On 19 January 1998, Mr Masood applied to the Refugee Review Tribunal ("the Tribunal") for a review of the delegate's decision. He was again unsuccessful. On 9 June 2000, the Tribunal rejected his application for a review and affirmed the earlier decision not to grant him a protection visa. Mr Masood now applies to the Federal Court for an order of review of the Tribunal's decision. 2 The basis upon which Mr Masood has sought protection was his claim that, as a member of the Pakistan People's Party ("the PPP"), he could not return to Pakistan because of the risk that he would be subjected to persecution for reasons of his political opinion. In a statement that he submitted to the Tribunal, Mr Masood wrote: "I told [the delegate] that I was a member of the Pakistan People's Party and that I could not return to Pakistan because of the persecution I had suffered, and that I believe I will suffer if I go back there." 3 In 1982, at the age of nineteen or twenty – and perhaps earlier – Mr Masood was in charge of a youth "wing" of the PPP in the town of Lalamuse which is in the Punjab area of Pakistan. At that time he had about 500 members under his command; that was also a time of martial law. Mr Masood said that he was arrested by the Army on three occasions in 1982. On the first occasion, he was warned that he should stop his activities with the PPP. He was detained in custody on this occasion for two days but he did not otherwise suggest that he was ill-treated by the authorities. On the second occasion however, some two months later, he was interrogated and forced to reveal the names of his associates; he was also, so he said, "tortured badly". In his statement to the Tribunal, Mr Masood said: "When I first refused to answer their questions they hung me upsidedown and repeated their questions. After again I did not answer then they took me down and put me on a large slab of ice and started punching and beating me all over my body. They used their truncheons etc during this. At this point I started to give them the information they wanted. I betrayed the names and whereabouts of many of my friends in the PPP. During this torture I fell unconscious. When I awoke I had bad injuries to my leg (for which I still have scars) and had sores all over my body. I was kept by the CIA for five days. When they had finished with me they threw me unconscious from one of their vehicles into a street near my house at night."