(Age) Law and counter-terrorism experts say cancelling the citizenship of Abdul Nacer Benbrika, the first Australian convicted of leading a terrorist group, won’t make the country any safer and could lead to a constitutional challenge.
Benbrika has completed a 15-year jail term for directing a Melbourne-based terror cell, but the government is trying to keep him in prison post-sentence in a trial that begins next week.
Regardless of the outcome, the 60-year-old Algerian-born dual citizen is facing deportation after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who labelled the operation that led to his arrest as the largest counter-terrorism investigation in Australian history, confirmed on Wednesday he had cancelled Benbrika’s citizenship.
