Serial rapist Akeel Hassan Abbas Al Baiiaty to be freed from prison, deported to Iraq immediately

Apart from a brief period when he was on parole Akeel Hassan Abbas Al Baiiaty has been in prison since 1998. Photo /123rf

A serial rapist jailed indefinitely is set to be granted parole - but will be deported from New Zealand upon his release from prison and banned from ever returning.

Akeel Hassan Abbas Al Baiiaty was sentenced to preventive detention for raping a 20-year-old student in a hostel in early 2004.

The attack came just weeks after he was released from prison where he had been serving time for raping two Auckland prostitutes in 1997.

Apart from the brief period when he was on parole, Al Baiiaty has been incarcerated since 1998.

But that could soon change for the Iraqi refugee.

In a Parole Board decision, chairman Sir Ron Young said Al Baiiaty had completed all of his rehabilitation.

"We are satisfied that reasonable arrangements have been made, as far as we are able to ascertain, with his family for accommodation," Young said.

The board took into account that a private psychologist was apparently available to Al Baiiaty, as was employment and the prospect of marriage in Iraq.

"That together, subject to one matter we will mention in a moment, is sufficient to satisfy us he is no longer an undue risk," Young said.

"The one matter that we are concerned about is the fact that he has still not been able by telephone to adequately advise his family and fiancé of the matters that would be typically contained within a reintegration meeting.

"And so we make it clear that while we give Mr Al Baiiaty a release date, we are likely to revoke that release if a telephone reintegration meeting has not been held by his release date."

The board maintained that much more needed to be done to explain his offending to his family in Iraq "including his high-risk situations and early warning signs".

Earlier this year the Herald reported that Al Baiiaty had made an "impassioned declaration that he has changed" to the Parole Board but his release was declined over concerns about his reintegration into society.

He planned on working for his family's clothing business and on marrying his fiancee "as soon as practicable".

However, what was missing from his release plan then had been a reintegration meeting with his support network in Iraq where he would present his safety plan, outline his risks and the plans that he had to "keep himself and the community, particularly women, safe".

That reintegration meeting was crucial, the Parole Board had then ruled.

Al Baiiaty is to be released on October 14 subject to special conditions and pending a reintegration meeting has been held with his family by telephone.

The survivor of the attack was devastated by the news.

She was notified and was supplied a copy of the decision late last week.

The special release conditions are:

(1) To be released into the custody of the New Zealand Immigration authorities, or to the New Zealand Police, for deportation from New Zealand.

(2) Not to return to New Zealand.

(3) Not to have contact or otherwise associate, with any victim of his offending, [including previous offending] directly or indirectly, unless with the prior written approval of a probation officer.