SZGCO v MIAC & Anor [2008] HCATrans 19 (6 February 2008)

Last Updated: 12 February 2008

[2008] HCATrans 019

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry
Sydney No S255 of 2007

B e t w e e n -

SZGCO

Applicant

and

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP

First Respondent

REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

Second Respondent

Application for special leave to appeal

Publication of reasons and pronouncement of orders

GUMMOW J
KIEFEL J

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT CANBERRA ON WEDNESDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 2008, AT 9.30 AM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

GUMMOW J: The applicant, a citizen of Bangladesh, arrived in Australia on 29 June 2004. On 12 October 2004 a delegate of the first respondent refused his application for a protection visa. The Refugee Review Tribunal affirmed that decision. It accepted that the applicant was a member of the army at the time of the assassination of the then President and was later a member of the Jatiya Party. It did not accept that he was targeted by the government or the Awami League. It found that he could not have been considered a serious suspect in connection with the assassination and his later imprisonment had not been politically motivated.

The Federal Magistrates Court (Scarlett FM) held that there was evidence to support the Tribunal's findings and no jurisdictional error. Edmonds J in the Federal Court agreed that there was no want of rationality in the Tribunal's decision. On 4 May 2007 His Honour dismissed the appeal to that Court.

The applicant's written submissions do not advance any question of law that would justify a grant of special leave to appeal. The sufficiency of evidence to ground the Tribunal's decision was dealt with in both of the courts below. Whilst a differently constituted Tribunal might have reached a different factual conclusion, no jurisdictional error is revealed in the findings of the Tribunal. We see no reason to doubt the correctness of the conclusions reached in the courts below.

Pursuant to r 41.10.5 we direct the Registrar to draw up, sign and seal an order dismissing the application. I publish the disposition signed by Kiefel J and myself.

AT 9.32 AM THE MATTER WAS CONCLUDED