Published by Pallavi pandey
Tried for years to deport the knife wielding militant: New Zealand
By- Khushi bhanushali
New Zealand had tried for years to deport the knife-wielding militant accused of wounding seven people at a mall in Auckland last week, the government said after it released more details on the suspect following the lifting of a court suppression order.
Court documents made public on Sunday identified the suspect as Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, 32, an ethnic Tamil Muslim from Sri Lanka. He had arrived in New Zealand 10 years ago on a student visa seeking refugee status, which was granted in 2013.The lifting of suppression orders showed that the attacker, Sri Lankan Ahamed Adil Mohamed Samsudeen, was served a deportation notice in April 2019 after his refugee status was revoked. While the legal process dragged on, Samsudeen grabbed a knife off a supermarket shelf in Auckland on Friday and injured seven people, leaving three critically wounded, before he was shot dead by police who were tailing him. During their investigations it became evident the refugee status was fraudulently obtained and the process began to cancel his right to stay in New Zealand, Ardern said.
The following year he was arrested at Auckland Airport, when it was suspected he was on his way to Syria and a police search of his home had revealed a large hunting knife and “material related to ISIS propaganda,” court documents said, using another acronym for the IS.Samsudeen, who described himself as a Tamil Muslim, appealed the deportation and told a court he faced “arrest, detention, mistreatment and torture” if sent back to Sri Lanka. “He was still in prison at this time, and facing criminal charges. For a number of reasons, the deportation appeal could not proceed until after the conclusion of the criminal trial in May 2021,” Ardern said. In the meantime, agencies were concerned about the risk this individual posed to the community,” she said, adding that officials knew he could be released and that the appeal, “which was stopping his deportation, may take some time.”Samsudeen at that stage had been held in custody for three years and authorities had exhausted all avenues to keep him detained. Attempts to have him charged under New Zealand’s Terrorism Suppression Act were unsuccessful and Ardern said changes to New Zealand’s counterterrorism legislation were expected to be approved by parliament before the end of the month. New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said there had been nothing unusual about the man’s actions in the lead-up to the attack, and he had appeared to be doing normal grocery shopping. Because he had a “high level of paranoia” around surveillance, Coster said the police kept their distance, and it took more than two minutes to reach the man and shoot him after he started his stabbing spree.
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