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What happened?
Scott was held under "questioning detention" at Carlton West Police Station.
Detained without charge
Murray was on his way to meet Scott to prepare for the workshop when he received another call from his friend: "Iain, I'm calling to tell you that I have been detained by the Australian Federal Police and Immigration Department and I am being taken to the Carlton West Police Station". Murray immediately made his way to the police station and contacted Pt'chang, Liberty Victoria and Greenpeace. Soon, a crowd of Scott's friends and supporters had gathered outside.
At the police station, Scott was told that his six month visa had been revoked on the grounds that a "competent authority" considered him a threat to national security, and asked to prove that this wasn't the case. As a strong advocate of peaceful protest and a student of nonviolent social movements in the tradition of Gandhi and King, Scott was perplexed.
"I'm a nonviolent person, a peace activist," he told the interrogating officials. "I organise peace events. I do talks."
Unfortunately, Scott's explanation fell on deaf ears. Charged with no crime and given no further grounds for his arrest, he was placed into mandatory detention pending deportation, and transferred to the Melbourne Custody Centre, a high-security prison facility beneath the Melbourne Magistrate's Court.
