Overstayer who shot his wife wastes thousands in legal aid for futile appeals

Wali Javad Allahayi

If it weren't for a legal loophole, Afghani overstayer Wali Javad Allahayi would have been sent straight back to where he came from three years ago.

Instead, he was freed from jail, shot his wife four days later and has since gone on to rack up $38,139 of taxpayers' money in legal aid - including a second appeal when his first was rejected.

Allahayi shot his New Zealand-born wife Amanda Hapeta in the back at their Manurewa home in 2003.

He had just spent six months in jail on immigration charges but could not be deported because he did not have a passport and refused to apply for one. The Afghan Embassy would not issue him with one unless he applied.

A court found that he was being held unlawfully and set him free.

The Government changed the law at once, but it was too late for his wife, who was paralysed by the bullet in her spine.

In 2004, Allahayi was convicted of wounding Ms Hapeta and sentenced to 10 years in jail with a six-year minimum non-parole period. He will then be deported.

The Weekend Herald has learned that Allahayi has since spent over $4500 on unsuccessful appeals.

His first appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal this year.

He then applied to appeal against this decision to the Supreme Court, which again rejected him, the three-judge bench saying in their ruling this month that there was not an issue that was "seriously arguable".

The Legal Services application letter could see a lawyer charge up to $165 an hour in legal aid for about six hours' work - almost $1000.

Ms Hapeta, who cannot walk without crutches, has had the marriage annulled because Allahayi was not her husband's real identity. It transpired that he was an Afghani called Abdul and had been deported from Canada for crimes there.

Ms Hapeta's uncle, Billy Walker, described Allahayi as an "irredeemable lowlife" who was taking advantage of the system. "He's doing it [the appeal] just because he can."

However, the family did not want to join the "anti-immigration chorus" and wanted his punishment served in New Zealand, whatever the burden to the taxpayer.

"If we just let him out of here now, Wali is such a slippery character he would probably just slip back in again. It would be horrible to see him roaming the streets again."