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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Man who almost lost hand in alleged machete attack gets visa extension
A man who almost lost his hand in an alleged machete attack has been granted a new visa so his medical treatment can continue in Australia. 7.30 can reveal that 33-year-old Indian national Saurabh Anand was granted the visa and is on a pathway to permanent residency after the federal government considered his case on compassionate grounds. Mr Anand survived the incident which allegedly occurred at a shopping centre in Altona Meadows just under a month ago. Five teenagers have been charged over the alleged attack including a 15-year-old boy arrested last Thursday. Mr Anand was facing deportation as his temporary visa was due to expire on August 25. The new visa will allow him to stay for up to two years, but he is also on a pathway to become a permanent resident of Australia. He says his health has been on rapid decline due to the severity of his injuries and pain. "This is a moment where I feel relieved that the government and the community has come together to support me through one of the most horrifying moments in my life," Mr Anand told 7.30. Mr Anand said the decision has rekindled his hope in humanity. Mr Anand and his mother Nitin Anand met with his local MP Tim Watts and Assistant Minister for Citizenship Julian Hill to receive the new visa. In a short meeting at the electorate office of Mr Watts, Mr Hill signed documents which granted the extension. The local MP offered Indian sweets to Mr Anand and his mother following the signing. In a poignant moment Ms Anand then took the sweets and offered them back to the two assistant ministers as a gesture of thanks for their decision. "If you have some I will have some," Mr Watts said to Ms Anand. Documents granting a two-year renewal to his subclass 485 (Temporary Graduate) visa were signed after Mr Anand was briefly taken temporarily into administrative detention to process the claim. Under law, it is an administrative requirement for the short detention period to take place so that the new can be granted. The decision was made under Section 195A of the Migration Act, which allows the minister to grant a detained person a visa if it was in the public interest. Mr Hill told 7.30 he was moved by Mr Anand's case. "It's the right thing to do, but also I'd hope as an Australian that if my daughter or any of our sons and daughters were in a foreign land and had been contributing to that country and ended up in a similar circumstance that another country would treat our sons and daughters as well." His recovery and treatment could take up to 12 months. "I am taking one day at a time, every day gives me a new hope, and this is a new hope for me," he said. "But as of the recovery, both physical and mental, exertion is there. "And it's going to be a long journey. "I'd like to thank everyone who has been supporting me throughout the community." On August 7, following the airing of a 7.30 story about Mr Anand's case in which he and his mother pleaded for help from the government, Mr Anand wrote to the minister seeking "urgent attention" to his case. In the email, he detailed how he was allegedly assaulted and the local medical care required for his recovery. "My injuries were so severe that it took over five hours for surgeons to reconstruct and reattach my left arm and hand, which had been nearly severed," he wrote. "Despite their efforts, I have lost approximately 80 per cent sensation in my left arm, hand, and fingers, and currently suffer from excruciating pain, multiple fractures, severed nerves, tendons, and muscles." Mr Anand has worked as a sales representative during his time in Australia and said that before his attack, he intended to move his career into the field of artificial intelligence. "I have lived in Australia for over seven years," he wrote in his email to the minister. "I have always abided by Australian laws and contributed to the community, "I am the only son of my widowed mother in India, and this incident has left me emotionally and financially devastated. "I place my hope in your compassion and kindness during this incredibly difficult period." Since the alleged attach in July attack Mr Anand has received support and visitation from both sides of politics including Victorian State Liberal MP Moira Deeming. Ms Deeming wrote to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on August 7 to plead for Mr Anand to be granted a bridging visa. The federal government will now move to grant Mr Anand permanent residency pending character checks and a full process through the Department of Home Affairs. Mr Hill said Mr Anand's work in Australia were key factors in his decision. "He studied a high-quality [degree], a master's at RMIT, and he's worked and contributed to the community," he said. Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Serial rapist trusted by Australian doctor to run strip club jailed for 145 years
A male exotic dancer who persuaded an Australian doctor to buy a gay strip club in the US used the venue to prey on female patrons in the biggest serial rape case investigators have seen. Ali Quraishi, who was trusted to run "day-to-day" operations at the Portland club by its Brisbane-based owner Julian de Looze, was sentenced to 145 years in jail in February. Warning: This article contains content that may be upsetting for some readers. Quraishi plied women at Stag PDX with alcohol and lured them to a $US1,800-a-month apartment he rented solely for the purpose of raping and filming them, documenting his crimes in a diary he called his "stripper journey". Dr de Looze, who runs a department at Australia's largest hospital, the Royal Brisbane and Women's, told police and licensing officials that he knew nothing of Quraishi's crimes until after his arrest in March 2023. "Licensee De Looze explained that he trusted Ali since he had known him for a while and because he had been the one who suggested that he purchase Stag PDX," an Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) report said. Dr de Looze told licensing investigators that he texted Quraishi in jail after he was taken into custody. And Dr de Looze was present in Washington County Circuit Court last November when Quraishi was convicted on 23 charges involving nine victims, according to police. This included first-degree rape, sexual abuse, sodomy, invasion of personal privacy, unlawful dissemination of intimate images and assault. Dr de Looze, who is clinical director of acute medicine at the Royal Brisbane, declined an interview request from the ABC. The venue issued a statement saying Quraishi's "disturbing criminal actions were shocking to Stag PDX and its corporate officer". "These criminal actions were in stark contrast to the values upheld by Stag PDX, its employees and its corporate officer and were not known at the time," it said. "Stag PDX expresses its utmost sympathy with the victims of these crimes, and all those affected by them." Portland Detective Maggie Brown, speaking to the ABC in the first media interview of her 21-year career, said that it was "by far the biggest sex assault case I've ever worked". Detective Brown said there were more victims in other jurisdictions. Quraishi kept offending even after police raided his apartment and seized his phone in February 2023. The next month, he raped a woman from the club, whose friends contacted Stag that night to report the assault. But Quraishi was still employed by Stag when arrested weeks later. "Ali knows police are digging around, he knows I now have two cases on him, that I've served a warrant on this apartment, that I've taken his cell phone, that I'm poking around, like, 'I'm now in your space, and I'm looking through all your stuff,'" Detective Brown said. Detective Brown said that while there was no suggestion of criminal conduct by Dr de Looze, her police reports recorded multiple witness accounts of him failing to act on staff complaints about Quraishi's behaviour at work. "They were all trying to raise these concerns with Julian, and they told me, 'For whatever reason, Maggie, Julian protects him, and we don't understand why,'" she said. These complaints are under investigation by Oregon's Bureau of Labour and Industry (BOLI), with former staff alleging they suffered reprisals, including dismissal, for speaking up about Quraishi. In an interview with police and licensing officials from the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) in May 2023, Dr de Looze described the relationship between Quraishi and other staff as "fractured and difficult", Detective Brown said. "He was getting complaints, and he wasn't sure what was true and what wasn't true," she said. "When we asked him about any sexual harassment allegations or complaints, he said he didn't know about any until Ali was arrested." The ABC obtained CCTV recordings from September 2021, in which bartender Franki Lucas told Dr de Looze that Quraishi was "an abuser" who targeted women at the club, including a patron who suspected he had drugged her and stolen her phone. Ms Lucas alleged that Quraishi had told her that "he's going to get me pregnant and I should carry his child" and then "pulled his dick out [and] charged me with his penis in the kitchen". Dr de Looze responded: "Is everything Ali's fault?" An OLCC report obtained by the ABC shows that when an investigator asked Dr de Looze how he was able to run a business from his home in Australia, he said he "trusted Ali to run the day-to-day operations". The OLCC investigated complaints about Quraishi, including "drug and alcohol use while [on] duty, masturbating in front of patrons/employees, inappropriate touching of patrons/employees, sexual harassment, pressuring bartenders to overserve customers, specific ones in particular, and complaints regarding how he would have people fired if they complained about his behavior". It said Dr de Looze "ultimately admitted to having at least some knowledge of Ali drinking on duty, telling people he (Licensee De Looze) would 'stick up for him' if anyone complained about his behavior, and a sexual harassment claim from Brittany Brock, a former bouncer at Stag PDX". He told the licensing officials that he "didn't learn of the other allegations until after Ali's rape arrest". An OLCC spokesman told the ABC there was "an open investigation [which] is not completed, and for that reason, we can't comment". The venue told the ABC it "takes any issue raised by its American regulators seriously and, as a good faith actor in such matters, is unable to provide commentary relating to any ongoing investigation or any review process". "Stag PDX has always cooperated proactively with its regulators," it said. "Stag PDX maintains comprehensive employee policies to prevent harassment, discrimination and retaliation, investigates complaints and takes appropriate action to enforce those policies in compliance with prevailing American and Oregon law and regulation." Ultimately, the judge found there was a "tidal wave of consistent testimony" from Quraishi's victims, Detective Brown said. "The consistent statement was, 'He would buy me a drink, told me he owned the club, and then I woke up in this strange apartment and had no memory of how I got there,'" she said. Some victims have never seen the videos Quraishi secretly made. At the sentencing, the detective said former employees thanked her "because for so long they have been trying to tell people and to get some sort of action about Ali and the problems that he was creating and the unsafe work environment that he was creating". "I got very positive feedback from them that it was good to see that he was held accountable and obviously the BOLI thing was moving forward, so there was some movement on what they had been observing all these years," she said. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) did not respond to the ABC. Complaints to BOLI include one by former Stag general manager Matthew Aspiri, who said his concerns about Quraishi were "dismissed and brushed aside". "Many people were fooled and lied to," Mr Aspiri said.
ABC News
14 hours ago
- ABC News
Man charged with murder over death of Elmars Kalejs, who was found unconscious in Perth car park
A 48-year-old man has been charged with murder over the death of a WA father who was found with serious injuries lying next to his car on Good Friday. WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family. Elmars Kalejs, 53, was found by a passer-by on April 18, sprawled unconscious next to his silver Holden Commodore sedan in a car park near the Settlers' Common Environmental Centre in Bedfordale in Perth's south-east. He was taken to Royal Perth Hospital and treated for head injuries and broken ribs, but died two months later on June 24. WA police had appealed for information to help them piece together how Mr Kalejs sustained his injuries. At the time, his daughter Courtney Mallard said her family wanted to know what happened to him so they could have closure. She described him as a loving, gentle man who "lived off the land". Today police revealed they had charged the 48-year-old man, of Cloverdale, with murder. He is due to face the Perth Magistrates Court tomorrow.
