By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
AN ASYLUM seeker who dislodged a man’s teeth with punches and a head butt at Dandenong Library has escaped conviction due to the risk of being deported.
Asef Saadat, 21, was charged with recklessly causing serious injury and assault over the lunchtime brawl on 5 July.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Dani Lord told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 23 November that Saadat bumped shoulders and tapped the leg of one of two male victims as he passed them on the library staircase.
After an exchange of words, Saadat then swung punches, loosening two of the victim’s teeth with several blows to the face, the court was told.
The second victim intervened and was hit on his nose, cheek and other parts of his face.
The victims were followed downstairs to the front of the library by Saadat.
Before two security officers could subdue the accused, he head-butted the first victim’s mouth and knocked out the loose teeth.
He punched the victim several more times to the face and fled.
The victim was taken to Dandenong Hospital where he was told his teeth could not be fixed, Sen Const Lord said.
Saadat was arrested three weeks later.
A defence lawyer conceded Saadat’s self-defence during the incident was “excessive”, having responded to an Afghan insult equivalent to “mother f***er” and one of the victims grabbing him.
“He (since) went to extraordinary lengths to create peace between the families.”
The lawyer told the court about Saadat’s troubled life as an Afghan Hazara refugee, who’d grown up without a father, spent time in Iranian and Indian refugee camps and Christmas Island detention centre and survived a crammed boat ride from Indonesia to Australia.
During the family’s flight to Tehran, their overloaded car drove off the side of a mountain. Saadat received serious head injuries and some occupants died.
With a fifth grade education, Saadat has been banned from work and study under a bridging visa for three years but had ambition to learn English and qualify for a trade, the lawyer said.
Magistrate Gerald Bryant said Saadat’s “vicious and brutal” act was neither reasonable or proportionate.
“It is uncivilised and it calls for denunciation.
“I must impose a penalty today which will hopefully act as a deterrent to you and to others that such brutal displays of violence will not be tolerated by the court.”
Mr Bryant said he couldn’t take into direct account the nature of the victims’ injuries nor Saadat’s Facebook page that identified him with boxing.
“The summary does not suggest in a meaningful way that either of your victims intended to hurt or harm you.
“It’s difficult to understand what would have motivated you to act in such a brutal and callous fashion particularly for those people who would have shared your journey to this country.”
Mr Bryant took into account Saadat’s 90 days in immigration detention since his arrest, and gave considerable weight to the adverse effect of a conviction.
“If I was to convict you of this serious offence, the impact on you will be vastly different for you than another resident or citizen.”
Any decision to repatriate Saadat to Afghanistan would be ultimately up to the federal immigration department, he said.
Mr Bryant also noted Saadat’s plea of guilty, youth, lack of prior convictions and difficult, traumatic life.
Saadat was fined $3000 without conviction.
