Australian security staff to go under probe

 AUSTRALIAN security staff will be investigated over their role in the Manus Island detention centre riot that left one man dead and scores injured, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has conceded.

According to media reports in Australia yesterday, Morrison issued a statement late on Saturday night admitting that much of the information he had given last week to the Australian public was now in 

doubt.

The most explosive admission is the revelation that most of the violence probably took place within the detention centre’s fences, rather than outside its boundaries, as Morrison had previously claimed.

It nullifies the initial blame put on the Papua New Guinea police who were stationed outside the fence that they were involved in the reported shooting incident.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Police Minister Nixon Duban had strongly condemned the accusations made against the PNG police.

G4S security guards manned the inside of the fence. 

A statement from the security company last week denied its officers’ involvement in the incident. 

It said it would cooperate with any investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, the body of an asylum seeker killed during the violence will be repatriated to his family in Iran, an Australian official said on Friday.

Reza Barati, 23, sustained fatal head injuries on Monday night as hundreds of asylum seekers pushed down a perimeter fence to escape the camp on Manus.

Morrison said Australia would repatriate Barati’s body to Iran at his family’s request, after an autopsy in PNG.