Key Points
- Mostafa Azimitabar is taking legal action against the federal government for detaining asylum seekers in hotels.
- He arrived in Australia under the medevac laws, spending 13 months in two hotels before he was released last year.
Kurdish refugee Mostafa Azimitabar, also known as 'Moz', is taking legal action against the federal government for detaining him and other refugees and asylum seekers in hotels.
Assisted by Amnesty International Australia, Moz is fronting the Federal Court in Melbourne this week to argue the government's use of hotels as "alternate places of detention" (APODs) as unlawful.
A musician who fled persecution in Iran, Moz was detained on Manus Island in 2013 for six years.
He arrived in Australia under the medevac laws, spending 13 months in the Mantra Hotel, followed by a month at the Park Hotel
Mr Azimitabar described the Mantra not as a hotel but as a "torture centre", and his room as an "invisible coffin", as he was unable to open his window for fresh air for more than a year.
"People look at the place as a hotel, but inside the hotel, there was no tranquillity and it was a torture centre, and it was worse than Manus Island," he told reporters ahead of the hearing.
Mr Azimitabar said the trauma still runs deep but is hopeful for a positive legal outcome.
"I think there is a blade in my body but I don't know where it is.
Mostafa 'Moz' Azimitabar is challenging the legality of the federal government's use of hotels to detain asylum seekers and refugees. Source: SBS News
Mr Azimitabar's legal team said they were arguing that the immigration minister does not have the power to declare any APOD they choose fit under the definition of immigration detention in the Migration Act.
"You can't create a power in a definition, and there is actually nothing in the Migration Act that gives the minister this power. So the APODs have no legal status at all," Marque Lawyers managing partner Michael Bradley said.
Mr Azimitabar's barrister Lisa De Ferrari SC told the Federal Court his detention was unlawful because the immigration minister himself didn't approve of the hotels being used as detention facilities.
She said then-minister Alan Tudge delegated the responsibility to officers and claimed any money spent setting up the Mantra and Park hotels as detention centres was not authorised by law.
"Mr Azimitabar's detention and that of many like him was unlawful," Ms De Ferrari told the court on Tuesday.
"The conditions of which you detain someone under the Australian Constitution have to be ... a place where the Commonwealth actually has authority to detain you, and has the authority to do so by the expenditure of money."
According to the Department of Home Affairs, there were 112 people who are detained in APODs as of March 2022 — these include hotels and apartments, aged care centres as well as mental health facilities.
Lawyers for the federal government rejected Mr Azimitabar's allegations, arguing his detention and the expenditure was lawful and permitted under the government's executive powers.
Mostafa Azimitabar (right) and other refugees are seen in a bus window after exiting the Park Hotel in Melbourne upon their release in January 2021. Source: AAP / James Ross
Djokovic's case made headlines around the world, .
In April, prior to the 2022 federal election, the government .
The hearing will continue until Wednesday.
With AAP.
