Simsek v Macphee [1982] HCA 7

High Court of Australia Stephen J. Simsek v Macphee [1982] HCA 7

ORDER Applications for interlocutory injunctions refused. Costs reserved. Certify for counsel.

Cur. adv. vult.

Stephen J. delivered the following written judgment:—

March 10 Stephen J.

The applicant is a Turkish national who arrived in Australia from Turkey on 30 January 1981. He seeks interlocutory injunctive relief, designed both to ensure that he is not deported from Australia before the determination of an action which he has instituted in this Court and also to secure his release from custody. He claims that he is entitled to status as a refugee under the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the associated Protocol of 1967, to each of which Australia is now party.

The applicant, although only twenty when he arrived in Australia, had had a troubled history in his own country which is relevant only because it is said to have been due to his political affiliations and activities and is relied on as giving rise to his status as a refugee. His experiences in Turkey included a serious assault on him by political opponents, another occasion when he was stabbed, his receipt of death threats and the bombing of the house where he lived in Ankara. He had at times carried a gun and had undertaken what he described as armed protective patrols of his village at night. In December 1978 he had been sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment on a charge of using a firearm. Some little time after his release from imprisonment he was charged and convicted by a military court of wounding with intent to kill. Both of these charges were apparently associated with his political activities. He was released on bail pending appeal and fled Turkey believing, he says, that he would not get a fair hearing of his appeal because of his political beliefs.