Australian court hears final submissions on Rebels president’s visa ban

An Australian court will decide next month whether the ban on Alex Vella's travel visa is to stand or not. 

The Maltese chief of the Rebels Motorcycle Club of Australia, the country’s largest ‘outlaw’ motorcycle club, will learn of his fate this month when a federal court decides whether the ban on his travel visa is to stand.

Last week, Alex Vella's lawyers filed written submissions before a decision is taken on 17 March in Sydney by the federal court.

Vella remains in Malta after his visa was stopped by Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison, citing “character provisions” that rendered Vella unfit to be granted permission to re-enter Australia.

Born in Mellieha as Alessio Emanuel Vella, the 61-year-old president of the Rebels MC has lived in Australia with his family for 46 years since he migrated there as a teen. He has never been granted citizenship.

On 9 June, 2014 he travelled to Malta, when his visa was cancelled and as a result he remains unable to return to Australia.

The immigration minister cancelled his visa on the basis of “reasonable suspicion” that Vella did not pass the character test, and that he was satisfied that the cancellation would be in the national interest – something based on Vella’s lengthy presidency of the Rebels MC and information that the Rebels MC was a club whose members engaged in serious criminal activity.

Vella failed to convince the federal court that evidence by immigration officials that led to the visa ban, be exhibited in court.

In a preliminary ruling, the court dismissed Vella’s claims that the minister’s refusal to publish confidential correspondence upon which he decided to cancel his visa, was unconstitutional.

The court said the immigration minister had proved at law that the information passed on to him was protected against disclosure.

Vella claimed that evidence by immigration officials on what made him fail a ‘character test’ was “sparse and formulary” and challenged the presentation as evidence of redacted copies of the documents. Vella insisted that the content of the original documents would contain information that was required to be disclosed to him for procedural fairness.

The evidence against Vella relies on two affidavits sworn by two senior officers of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection Department.

Crime allegations

According to court documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Minister Scott Morrison’s decision relied on detailed intelligence provided by an Australian Crime Commission-led task force and outlined in a document tendered in the federal court last month.

The ‘Attero’ task force was established in 2012 to ‘disrupt, disable and dismantle criminal activities of the Rebels MC – one of Australia’s highest risk criminal threats’, the document states.

Attero investigators claim that under Vella’s leadership the Rebels have engaged in drug dealing, money laundering, serious assaults, kidnapping, extortion, firearms offences, threatening law enforcement officers and intimidation of court witnesses. It is believed the gang has more than 2,000 members across the country.
Vella has denied running a criminal organisation and has challenged the Department of Immigration’s decision in the federal court.

Vella, in the past described as a millionaire businessman, is raising money with $50 t-shirts on his new website alexvella.com.au, which recounts his story of migrating to Australia.

A campaign under the slogan ‘BRING HIM HOME’ also calls on well-wishers for their support. The Let Alex Vella Return to Australia Facebook page has received over 26,000 likes.