April 30, 2024
Released detainee charged over violent theft
One of the men arrested at the weekend over the violent home robbery of an elderly couple had been released from immigration detention in November as part of a controversial High Court ruling.
The Herald can reveal Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, 43, is one of three men accused of an attack on Ninette (pictured) and Philip Simons at their home in Perth's northern suburbs on April 16.
A man arrested at the weekend over the violent home robbery of an elderly Perth couple had been released from immigration detention in November as part of a controversial High Court ruling.
The Herald can reveal Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, 43, is one of three men accused of an attack on Ninette and Philip Simons at their home in Perth's northern suburbs, on April 16.
WA Police allege the men posed as police officers and said they had a warrant to search the home for stolen gold. Philip, 76, said they tied him up, while Ninette, 73, a recent cancer survivor, was allegedly assaulted. She told media she had thought she was going to die.
The three men allegedly fled the home with $200,000 worth of jewellery and other items.
After a week-long manhunt, police arrested three people in relation to the incident at the weekend.
An Australian Border Force spokesman said the Department of Home Affairs knew WA Police had arrested a person who held a bridging visa R the visa held by the detainees released after the High Court decision but refused to comment any further because the matter was before the courts.
Doukoshkan was charged with aggravated home burglary, robbery, impersonating a public officer, assault and detaining someone.
He was part of a group of detainees released from Perth's Yongah Hill Detention Centre in November after a High Court ruling found indefinite detention for detainees who could not be deported was illegal.
After the decision, the Albanese government rushed laws through parliament that gave the Commonwealth powers to slap curfews on and electronically monitor released detainees.
Doukoshkan had a night curfew.
The government is working on amendments to migration laws that will give it powers to force visa R holders to apply for foreign travel documents like passports under which they could be removed from Australia.
Opposition spokesmen for home affairs, James Paterson, and immigration and citizenship, Dan Tehan, called on their government counterparts Andrew Giles and Clare O'Neil to explain how the system they had had in place to protect the community had failed this couple.
"The ministers have hidden from scrutiny on this issue. They now need to stand up and answer these questions and more," they said. "The Albanese Labor government has stopped providing timely updates about how many are being monitored and what conditions are being applied to these detainees."
They asked why the government did not seek a preventive detention order against Doukoshkan; whether he was wearing a GPS monitor; and what other conditions were placed on him at the time of the alleged offence.
Other arrests were made at the weekend in relation to the home invasion. Police in Perth searched several Nollamara properties and allegedly found handcuffs, a WA Police badge wallet and a WA Police brim hat, as well as items of jewellery at one of the homes.
A 38-year-old man was arrested and will appear in court next month. On Sunday, Emmy Signo, 48, was arrested in nearby Balcatta, accused of driving the men to and from the Girrawheen home on the night of the attack.
Soon afterwards, police arrested Doukoshkan at a home in Osborne Park, also nearby, where it is alleged jewellery was recovered.
He appeared briefly in Joondalup Magistrates Court yesterday and was remanded in custody.
Ninette and Philip Simons spoke last week about their ordeal in the hope it would flush out the perpetrators. "I said, 'She's a cancer patient, she's just come out of hospital'," Philip said. "But I could still hear the screaming and punching."
Ninette said she had thought she would die. "I just felt defenceless. I felt like an idiot," she said.
"I handed over all of my life's savings on a platter, only to be bashed for it."
