Imprisoned Lankan doctor appeals to stay in Australia
November 22, 2016 03:11 pm
A Sri Lankan-born doctor who bludgeoned her husband to death with a mallet after years of abuse is appealing to the Australian Immigration Minister to allow her to stay in Australia after serving her sentence, ABC news reported.
Dr Chamari Liyanage is serving a four-year prison term in Greenough Regional Prison after being convicted of the manslaughter of fellow doctor Dinendra Athukorala at their home in the West Australian town of Geraldton in June 2014.
She was acquitted of the more serious charge of murder and has been eligible to apply for parole since June.
Her application for parole is due to be heard early next year but if granted, she is likely to be moved into immigration detention and could be deported because her visa was cancelled whilst behind bars.
In an appeal to Peter Dutton obtained by 7.30, Liyanage said she took full responsibility for what had happened and there was little to no chance of her reoffending.
“I would also like you to consider my personal circumstances leading to the offence,” she wrote.
“I was a victim of long term abusive and violent relationship and I believe that my judgement had been affected and considerably impaired at the time.”
Liyanage said she feared for her safety if deported to Sri Lanka.
“I am afraid and concern (sic) about safety of my family in Sri Lanka if I have to return home,” she wrote.
“My presence, media publicity and stigma associated with this case will bring hostilities towards my family … I am worried that will jeopardise the lives of my family.”
During her trial, the court heard the couple’s five-year marriage was defined by the “worst kind” of escalating sexual, physical and emotional abuse.
Liyanage’s immigration lawyer, Alisdair Putt, said her client was living a “double life”.
“On the one hand, she was a very well-respected and intelligent medical practitioner who worked extremely hard on behalf of patients often in a life-saving role,” he said.
“But on the other hand, she was part of a very violent and abusive manipulative relationship with her former partner that did cause considerable stress.”
Even her closest friends had little clue about what was going on behind the closed doors of her Geraldton home.
Di Budge said she was shocked when she learned the details of her friend’s marriage.
-ABC
-Agencies
