Australia a safe haven for war criminals

Former deputy prosecutor at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague, Graham Blewitt, said some "perpetrators are being allowed to roam free in this country without any fear."

"I believe that Australia has a reputation amongst those who have been involved in war crimes as a safe haven," he told ABC radio.

"You are not going to be prosecuted and frankly that is a reputation that Australia should not be prepared to wear."

Blewitt, formerly the head of an Australian unit investigating Nazi war criminals, was responding to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald that a member of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's family and personal security force, had been given temporary residency here.

Oday Adnan Al Tekriti, 38, was initially refused a visa after he arrived in the country six years ago because immigration officials found serious reasons to believe he had committed crimes against humanity.

But the visa refusal was overturned and he has been given temporary safe haven in the southern city of Adelaide where he lives with his wife, an Australian doctor.

Speaking in parliament Monday, Prime Minister John Howard said the immigration department had not wanted to give Al Tekriti a temporary residency visa but the decision was overturned by the independent body of review, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.