Zimbabwean HIV+ acrobat wants to return to AustraliaCircus acrobat Godfrey Zaburoni in 2009 |
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AN HIV-positive circus acrobat who had his visa cancelled after infecting his girlfriend is fighting to have the ban overturned so he can return to Australia to have access to medical treatment.Gold Coast performer Godfrey Zaburoni was held in immigration detention last September and has since returned to his native Zimbabwe.
His lawyer Mark Robinson told a Federal Court hearing on Friday Zaburoni only has one year’s supply of antiretroviral medication and can’t get it in his home country. Robinson said Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who the case is filed against, disregarded reports of two doctors who found Zaburoni was a low or zero risk to the community when he signed off on the visa cancellation. The attorney told the court Zaburoni had turned his life around and medication use meant he couldn’t infect anyone else. “(The minister) has made a quantum leap without taking all of that matter into account,” he said. “It smacks of irrationality.” Zaburoni was originally sentenced to nine-and-a-half years jail in 2013 after being convicted in Queensland of intentionally infecting someone with HIV. He was found to have passed on the virus to his girlfriend between 2007 and 2008, and lying about his medical history. However, the High Court upheld his appeal against the conviction in April last year, finding while he had regular unprotected sex with her, there was “no evidence to support the inference” he intentionally infected her. Zaburoni was resentenced to five years jail for the lesser charge of unlawfully doing grievous bodily harm but it was suspended in June because he’d already served more than three years. A lawyer representing utton argued he acted within his discretionary powers in cancelling the visa because there was a possibility Zaburoni could cause harm in the community. The lawyer said Zaburoni had a “history of misleading.” The judge will hand down her decision on a later date. |
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Deported Zim HIV+ man seeks Australia return
- 11/02/2017
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