Deported

EARLWOOD scholar Sheikh Mansour Leghaei's battle for permanent residency status has come to a crushing end, and the cleric will return to Iran after more than 16 years in Australia.
The Department of Immigration has asked him to depart by June 28, and he will leave with his wife and Australian-born daughter on Sunday evening.
Three of his sons will remain here, while his wife, who has been granted permanent residency status, along with his Australian-born daughter, will leave with the man so many have described as a "peaceful, humble bridge-builder".
"I'm disappointed ... unfortunately the existing law is extremely discriminatory," Sheikh Leghaei told the Valley Times yesterday.
"I was never given a chance to defend myself. It was 12 years that I was never allowed to know anything. I believe any evidence that is not tested, is invalid."
Sheikh Leghaei will remain director of the Earlwood-based Imam Husain Islamic Centre after his deportation.
He has a large following within the Muslim community, and has received widespread support from the Christian community.
One of his closest friends, Father Dave Smith from Dulwich Hill's Holy Trinity Church, expressed disappointment at the government's refusal for ministerial intervention.
Father Smith joined more than 1,000 supporters in Canberra earlier this month to deliver a petition which the Prime Minister's office refused to accept.
The Federal Government has also snubbed the United Nations Human Rights Committee's request that Sheikh Leghaei not be deported until it has ruled on his complaint.
Father Kevin Dance, a former Marrickville parish priest and representative of the Passionist Community at the UN, also wrote to Mr Rudd in support of the sheikh - whom he has never met.
Ben Saul, associate professor of International Law at the University of Sydney, said Australia's approach was at odds with much of the liberal democratic world.

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