A Sudanese refugee who was jailed for less than five years over the fatal bashing and stabbing of a teenager in a Victorian town has been spared deportation because he has lived in Australia most of his life.
Abraham Abas, 23, was among four men who chased down and killed Nicholas Henry, 18, in Morwell in 2021, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter after his murder charge was downgraded because one assailant was never identified and it could not be proven who delivered the eight fatal stab wounds.
He was sentenced to 7.5 years’ imprisonment with a 4.5-year non-parole period by a Supreme Court justice in 2023, sparking outrage from his victim’s family, who said at the time it “didn’t feel like justice”.
Abas’s refugee visa was cancelled in 2024, but Abas appealed the cancellation in a two-day hearing at the Administrative Review Tribunal in December, and on Wednesday the tribunal revoked the cancellation.
The tribunal ruled that although Abas failed the character test, posed a risk of reoffending, and would be expected to be deported by the community, these factors were outweighed by the strength, nature and duration of his ties to Australia, the best interests of his five minor relatives, and the risk of harm if he was sent to Sudan.
“[Abas] has lived in Australia for the majority of his life, his immediate and extended family reside in Australia, he has never been to Sudan and if removed would lose all meaningful contact with his family including his nieces and nephews,” the tribunal stated.
The killer’s lawyers successfully argued that “his identity and values are derived exclusively from this community, and he has no ties to Sudan”, and that “permanent removal would cause insurmountable distress to [Abas]’s interdependent family unit, particularly his mother and his Australian citizen fiancé”.
“Removal to Sudan would sentence [Abas] to destitution and severe health risks due to the civil war”, the tribunal listed as a reason given not to cancel his visa, along with “indefinite ‘limbo’ and or removal to third country”.
“If not removed to Sudan, [Abas] faces the indefinite ‘limbo’ of a Bridging Visa R, involving punitive monitoring conditions, exclusion from essential services, and the constant threat of criminalisation,” the tribunal noted.
“Furthermore, he faces the new and real risk of forced removal to a third country where he has no connections or support.”
Abas’s lawyers submitted that their client had completed four programs while in jail – The Changing Gears Program, Tuning Into Respectful Relationships, Know the Score, and Skating on Ice – and had “engaged with mental health professionals to address his past trauma and previously undiagnosed PTSD”.
His counsel also claimed Abas had not been involved in “any transgression” in prison, but the tribunal noted that records showed he had been involved in violent incidents as both perpetrator and victim, and was a risk of reoffending due to “underlying trauma from his early years”.
The tribunal heard Abas, the youngest of seven siblings, was born in a Kenyan refugee camp to parents of Sudanese ethnicity, and the family were given Global Special Humanitarian Visas and arrived in Australia in 2006, when Abas was four.
While sentencing Abas in 2023, Justice Jane Dixon told him: “I accept that the risk of deportation and separation from your family weighs heavily on your mind and increases the hardship of your custodial circumstances. I take this into account in sentencing you.”
Header image: Left, Abraham Abas (Facebook). Right, Nicholas Henry (supplied).
The post Sudanese refugee who killed Aussie teen avoids deportation first appeared on The Noticer.
The NoticerRead More
R1
T1
