This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A single father living as a refugee on Nauru has been charged and convicted for attempting to take his own life, after prosecutors sought to use his case as a deterrent to people holding protests.

Medical and mental health professionals have criticised the move as victim-blaming, retrograde, and a backwards step in international efforts to decriminalise suicide.

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The Iranian man, Sam Nemati, and his eight-year-old daughter had been resettled in Nauru on temporary refugee visas after being detained for two years under Australia’s offshore immigration processing regime, the ABC reported on Friday.

In late January Nemati and his daughter moved accommodation to Nibok Lodge, where Nemati said his daughter would have other children to play with, but authorities sought to remove them because he had moved “without approval or authority”.

According to the ABC, Nemati became distressed after officials began removing his belongings and he attempted to take his own life.

He was taken for medical treatment, but the following day Nemati was charged with attempted suicide under the country’s criminal code. He was held in custody for two weeks, and pleaded guilty.

Nemati was given a 12 months good behaviour bond, but a statement from the Nauruan government said prosecutors had sought jail time of between one and two months “to deter other would-be offenders who resort to self-harm to avoid lawful actions against them or to get what they want”.

“We are concerned that this method of protest is still being used and want to stamp out this practice,” it said.

The statement said prosecutors made no reference to their request being specifically aimed at the refugee community, but asylum seekers on Nauru have held daily rallies for over three weeks now.

Nemati was arrested, charged, and convicted by the Nauruan justice system within weeks, while several cases of alleged assaults and abuse have gone without consequence for months. Despite numerous reports of attacks on refugees and asylum seekers no one has ever been convicted.

Michael Walsh (@mikehwalsh) Prosecutors pushed for a 2 month jail sentence. He's the sole parent of an 8-year-old daughter. pic.twitter.com/nLpkPmyu3O

Michael Dudley, the immediate past chair of Suicide Prevention Australia, described the act as “extraordinarily regressive” and “a step back to the middle ages”.

“It breaches all contemporary standards for care of people who are self-harming and it basically flies in the face of the international movement to decriminalise suicide and self-harm,” Dudley told Guardian Australia.

“There’s a long tradition in immigration detention and among ministers for immigration to brand self-harm as merely attention seeking or attempting to obtain some other outcome, and to overlook the true elements of despair, hopelessness and the true mental illness components that surround this.”

In February immigration minister Peter Dutton suggested the government was the target of blackmail attempts by asylum seekers seeking healthcare. And in 2014 then prime minister Tony Abbott said his government “would not be held over a barrel” after a number of women in detention were placed on suicide watch.

Other medical experts have been similarly critical of Nauru’s conviction of Nemati.

“We don’t regard an attempted suicide as a criminal act but as a manifestation of serious mental illness,” Dr Stephen Parnis, the vice president of the Australian Medical Association told Guardian Australia.

Parnis said he hoped his reaction was typical of most Australians.

“Health problems need to be treated as health problems by medical and other workers. It shouldn’t be treated as a criminal issue in the courts.”

Dr Peter Young, the former medical director for mental health at the International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) told Guardian Australia Nauru’s action was punishing and blaming victims.

“That anybody would ever contemplate saying or trying to do something like that in Australia as a way of responding to someone who has committed self-harm is totally unthinkable,” said Young.

“It all falls in the category of non-compliance and all non-compliance will be punished.”

Young has been outspoken on the psychological damage among asylum seekers within the Australian detention and processing system.

“It’s the same sort of thing as what happens when women want terminations, as what happens when child abuse is reported, as what happens when sexual assaults are reported there: the same blanket approach which is this is all bad non-compliant behaviour and the appropriate response is punishment.”

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said it was “highly concerned” by the reports.

“RANZCP does not comment on individual cases, but notes that attempted suicide is a complex and tragic issue that requires appropriate clinical care,” the organisation’s president, Professor Malcolm Hopwood, told Guardian Australia.

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“We continue to advocate for the provision of high quality health services for asylum seekers in all environments.”

The Australian Labor spokesman for immigration, Richard Marles, said his party was concerned about the reports of “punitive treatment”.

“Australia has an obligation in respect to the safety of all refugees and asylum seekers in its direct and indirect care, both in Australia and offshore,” said Marles.

“Labor calls on Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to investigate this matter urgently. Labor does not believe it is acceptable for a person to be charged in such a circumstance.”

The Nauruan police force had also claimed Nemati’s daughter was cared for “by relatives”, with the child protection unit “handling her welfare” while Nemati was in custody.

Nemati disputed this, pointing out he had no relatives on Nauru at all, and told the ABC the girl had been left alone for two days until his friends took her in.

The Australian department of immigration told Guardian Australia it was “aware” that the child protection unit, with support from Connect, had “identified and endorsed appropriate care arrangements for the child during the father’s period in jail.”

The spokeswoman said it was not appropriate for the department to comment on another nation’s legal and judicial processes, and had nothing further to add.

The Nauru government has not responded to requests for comment.