http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-13/who-was-christmas-island-refugee-fazel-che...

As investigators piece together how this week's riot on Christmas Island unfolded, a clearer picture of the man whose death prompted the destruction is also starting to emerge.

Iranian Kurd, Fazel Chegeni, arrived by boat in Australia four years ago to seek asylum.

He was granted refugee status but was held in the Curtin Detention Centre for final security checks before being granted a visa.

It was there an incident occurred that shaped the rest of his life.

Mr Chegeni was involved in a fight inside the detention centre's canteen.

CCTV vision obtained by 7.30 shows Mr Chegeni pushing another detainee who then hits him with a plate.

The fight then degenerates into a brawl.

It is all over in less than a minute, but the brawl condemned Mr Chegeni to never being settled in Australia.

More than a year later, Mr Chegeni and four other men were charged with assault.

His solicitor, Matthew Wilson, said a strategic decision at the trial backfired, sealing Mr Chegeni's fate.

After initially entering a plea of not guilty, the five men changed their plea on legal advice when it appeared that the court was unlikely to be sympathetic to their argument of self-defence.

"Fazel and our other four clients elected to plead guilty, allowing them to express their remorse for their involvement in the fight and throw themselves at the full mercy of the court," Mr Wilson said.

Doesn't surprise me one bit. These people need to learn that they can't behave like criminals just because they're growing impatient. They'll never be settled here.

Dnarever wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 7:25am:


What failure num nuts ?

cods wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 7:54am:


Maybe they want to enter them into The America's Cup..........where is Alan Bond when ya need him? 

cods wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 7:54am:


Waffle.

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 11:19am:


And it is not the man himself's fault?

mariacostel wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 12:29pm:


I would point to the outrage from the right about the deaths under the pink batts scheme where the right placed the entire blame on the Labor Government despite contractors having OHS responsibilities that they failed to uphold....I would also like to point out that the OP placed the blame on a lawyer for giving advise which was correct....Blaming the deceased man without any information to form an opinion is bullshit in the extreme....The Federal Government is fully responsible for people under their care!!!

Maqqa wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 1:11pm:


Really....Yet here you are blaming the lawyer and then the victim....It is always someone else's fault when the LNP are involved accept those charged with the responsibility of their safety and care....How do you reconcile this with the outrage of the pink batt deaths where you placed full responsibility on the Labor Federal Government....The LNP are responsible for the safety of detainees under their care not a bloody lawyer???