Commentary
On June 8, the Australian High Court handed down a controversial decision to strike down government powers to strip nationals of citizenship for engaging in suspected terrorist activities. The court ruled in favour of Delil Alexander, a Turkish citizen whose Australian citizenship was cancelled in 2021, due to the national security agency’s assessment that he had joined the Islamic State and engaged in foreign incursions and recruitment. By majority, the court-ordered Alexander’s citizenship must be restored with the Australian government to pay costs.
In June 2021, ASIO, Australia’s national security agency responsible for the protection of the country from espionage and terrorism, communicated to then Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews that Alexander was part of a group of religious extremists whose trip to Syria had been arranged by terrorist facilitator Hamdi al-Qudis. In April 2013, he travelled to Turkey and on to Syria, where he joined Islamic State by August, four months later….