Fiji’s Immigration Director Nemani Vuniwaqa is today questioning how Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton can say that Islamic State terrorist Neil Prakash is a Fijian Citizen when the Fijian Immigration Department has confirmed after checking its records that Prakash is not a Fijian citizen.
Fiji Immigration Director Nemani Vuniwaqa
Dutton said in a press conference on Wednesday that Prakash by operation of law is a citizen of Fiji after the Australian government stripped Prakash of his citizenship.
Neil Prakash who was linked to several Australian‑based attack plans and calls for lone‑wolf attacks against the US was born in Melbourne in Australia.
He is believed to have left for Syria in 2013, where he changed his name to Abu Khaled al‑Cambodi and was put on a US kill list.
Prakash’s father is a Fijian of Indian descent while his mother is from Cambodia.
Immigration Director Nemani Vuniwaqa told Legend FM News that as far as they are concerned Prakash is not a Fijian citizen and he has never entered Fiji.
Vuniwaqa has also questioned Dutton’s comment that the Fijians were advised of the Neil Prakash situation sometime ago.
Prakash was captured in Turkey in 2016, and is now in a maximum security prison facing terrorism charges with potential sentences of up to 15 years in jail.
He is wanted by Australian authorities over his alleged role in two terrorism plots, including one to target Anzac Day services in Melbourne in 2015 and over his travel to Syria to fight with Isis.
He faces a potential life sentence if extradited and convicted in Australia.
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