The family of the Iranian asylum seeker Hamed Shamshiripour have formally requested his body be brought to Australia from Papua New Guinea for an inquest, saying foul play could not be ruled out in his death.
Shamshiripour’s body was found on Monday in forest near to the refugee transit centre on Manus Island where he was being held. The 31-year-old – whose acute and worsening mental health issues had been raised within the highest echelons of the Australian immigration department – had been missing since Saturday.
Police have said Shamshiripour’s death was suicide, but his family in Iran has demanded an urgent autopsy, followed by an inquest in Australia to determine the cause, timing and circumstances of his death. They want immediate assurance his body is being kept in mortuary-like conditions, and have asked that it be returned to Iran after the autopsy.
The family is also asking for an inquiry into the actions of the Australian Border Force and other government agencies responsible for Shamshiripour’s welfare and care.
Professor George Newhouse from the National Justice Project, which is acting for the Shamshiripour family, said they sought only a transparent process to investigate their son’s death.
“Hamed’s declining health had been monitored by Border Force and was known to Comcover – I can understand why people are demanding that they be held responsible for the inaction that led to his death.
“Our leaders are implicated in Hamed’s death. Government officials knew about his fragile condition and they left him there to die.
“But there is a paper trail in this case that must be followed and we will not rest … the family want justice and they want those responsible to be held accountable even if that goes all the way to the prime minister and the minister for immigration.”
Photos are in circulation purportedly showing Shamshiripour’s body when it was found. The Guardian has chosen not to publish these, and they are not conclusive about the circumstances of his death.
The photos show injuries that may have occurred before death. The position in which Shamshiripour’s body was found has also raised questions about the circumstances of his death.
The Papua New Guinea police commissioner, Gary Baki, told reporters Shamshiripour committed suicide, but refugees and detention centre staff on Manus Island have called for an autopsy, alleging Shamshiripour had regularly clashed with police and members of the public, and may have been attacked.
Police established a crime scene where Shamshiripour’s body was found, by schoolchildren, on Monday morning.
The Manus Island police chief, David Yapu, said an autopsy would be conducted to determine Shamshiripour’s cause of death, but there has been no detail on when, where and by whom that would be conducted. Yapu said he believed there was no evidence of foul play.
For more than a year, refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island, advocates in Australia, and mental health professionals working in the detention centre, repeatedly raised concerns about Shamshiripour’s deteriorating mental health.
His “chaotic presentation”, “erratic and unpredictable behaviour” and “unstable state” were the subject of repeated formal reports and informal pleas from health professionals during his time on Manus.
Shamshiripour’s case had also been reported in the media over several months.
The chief medical officer of the Australian Border Force, Dr John Brayley, who has ultimate responsibility for the healthcare of those held with Australia’s immigration regime, was told of Shamshiripour’s deteriorating mental state on several occasions in the past year.
In a letter Brayley wrote and signed in August last year, he said he had been made aware of concerns over Shamshiripour’s mental health management.
“Our office is seeking a copy of his file, in particular to review his mental health records,” Brayley wrote.
Correspondence from his office said it was “actively monitoring” Shamshiripour’s case.
Brayley did not return calls from the Guardian about what action, if any, his office took in Shamshiripour’s case.
While Shamshiripour died in PNG, he was legally under the care and control of the Australian government, according to international legal opinion, including the United Nations. Refugees held in offshore detention are “under our supervision”, Malcolm Turnbull told US president Donald Trump in January.
Protests are continuing in the Manus Island detention centre against the forcible closure of the centre, which will force refugees into the community on Manus Island where they say they are not safe.
There has been increasing tension between refugees and Manusians in recent months, and a spate of violent attacks on refugees, including with machetes.
One refugee on Manus who was reportedly flown to Port Moresby in recent days suffering severe head injuries from an attack, has since been medevacced to Australia in a critical condition, according to sources on the island.
Protests have also been held on Nauru, with reports of five arrests, and accusations of police hitting a child and beating a young man.
Video of one purported protest shows a violent confrontation between protesters and Nauruan police, and the arrest of at least one person. Another shows dozens of protesters marching, saying “our patience is over” and “shut down offshore”.
One protester said an island bus had been burned outside the refugee camp – allegedly by Nauruan locals – and police had been called.
Previous protests have resulted in arrests under Nauruan laws against three or more people congregating on public land in “unlawful assembly”, if the gathering causes reasonable fear that they will “tumultuously disturb the peace”.
A man was charged after a rally of more than 100 people marched from a beach lodge to the refugee camp in February last year. Nauruan court documents said the march interrupted the flow of traffic, and scuffles caused reasonable likelihood of a breach of the peace. The man said he took part in the march, but was not an organiser.
