of Iranian health care facilities. However, it considered that the author was at grave risk of not seeking out appropriate treatment generally, and in particular Clorazil, without which his psychotic delusions would return. It considered that there was no evidence of back-up treatment in Iran should the author fail to take his medication, and that the likelihood of a recurrence of illness was greater in Iran than Australia. It made no finding on the cause of the author’s mental illness. 5 February 1999, the Minister appealed the Federal Court’s decision to the Full Court of the Federal Court (“the Full Court”). On 20 July 1999, the Full Court allowed the Minister’s appeal against the judgement of 15 February 1999, holding that the AAT’s findings in “an extremely difficult case”, while “debatable”, had been open to it on the evidence and had properly balanced the competing factors.17 The Court noted that “while [his] illness can be controlled by medication available in Australia [Clorazil], the medication is probably not available in Iran”. Accordingly, the effect of the decision was that the deportation order stood. On 5 August 1999, the author applied to the High Court for special leave to appeal against the Full Court decision. On 11 February 2000, the application for special leave was dismissed. 2.11 On 23 November 1998, the author again appealed the AAT’s decision to the Federal Court. On 4 December 1998, the author was granted parole from his criminal conviction under strict conditions,15 but remained in immigration detention pending the appeal against the AAT’s decision. On 15 January 1999, the Federal Court, by expedited hearing, again allowed the author’s appeal against the AAT’s decision. It found that the AAT had improperly construed the protection of article 33 of the Convention,16 and moreover that it had again failed to properly consider the mitigating circumstances constituted by the author’s state of mind at the time of commission of the offences. The Court remitted the case to the AAT for urgent hearing, and accordingly denied the author’s accompanying motion for interim release. On (f) The applications to the subsequent proceedings Minister and 2.12 On 19 January 1999, following the Federal Court’s second decision in the author’s favour against the AAT, and later in February and March, the author applied to the Minister for revocation of the deportation order and for release from immigration detention, supplying a substantial body of medical opinion in support. 2.13 On 11 and 18 March 1999, the Minister decided that he would not order the author’s release and that he would remain in detention. On 29 March 1999, the author applied to the Federal Court for judicial review of the Minister’s decision. On 8 April 1999, the author sought interim relief pending the decision of the Federal Court on the main 29 March application. On 20 April 1999, the Federal Court dismissed the application by the author for review of the Minister’s decision not to release him. The Court considered that, while there was a serious question as to whether the Minister had taken into account an irrelevant consideration when making his decision, the balance of convenience favoured refusal of the order given the imminence of appeal to the Full Court on the AAT’s decision. On 19 May 1999, the Minister supplied his reasons for declining the author’s release. He assessed, relying in part upon the AAT decisions which had been vacated on appeal, the possibility of the author’s reoffending as significantly high and concluded that the author constituted a continuing danger to the community and to his victim. On 15 October 1999, the Minister 15 The author had actually become eligible for parole in July 1997, but the Parole Board deferred its decision due to the deportation proceedings set in train by the Minister. The Parole Board had before it a Psychiatric Report, dated 16 March 1998, it had requested from Consultant Psychiatrist Barrie Kenny stating inter alia “The fact that he developed this psychotic state, in detention, without a prior relevant history, strongly suggests that his psychotic state may well have been precipitated by the experience of prolonged detention.” 16 On this issue, the Court found: “Given the findings of the AAT concerning what would be likely to happen to the applicant on return to Iran and its finding that a return to a psychotic state would be likely to bring him to the attention of the authorities and further, given that because of his ethnicity and religion he may lose his freedom, I find that the AAT’s conclusion that the [author] does not have the protection of article 33 (1) of the Convention so unreasonable that no reasonable tribunal could so conclude. The AAT outlined circumstances where the [author], if returned to Iran, may, as a result of being ill, bring himself to the attention of the authorities and be incarcerated, at least in part as a result of those authorities discovering that he is an Assyrian Christian. It is absurd for the AAT to contend that the [author’s] freedom would not thereby be threatened on account of his race and religion. Of course the trigger for the persecution may be his mental state, but once there exists the likelihood of persecution which is in part on account of a Convention based reason it matters little that the triggering of the persecution was a matter which is extraneous to a Convention based reason”. [C] v. Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [citation deleted]. 17 The Court accepted, nonetheless, that the author’s “illness developed as a result of his detention pending the determination of his application for a protection visa. That application was ultimately determined in his favour. The illness was a significant factor causing [the author] to commit the crimes which gave rise to his liability to deportation”. Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v. [C] [citation deleted]. 144