Aussie officer makes visa plea for VN victim of neo-Nazi gang

Detective Acting Sergeant Kevin Burke from the Hume Crime Investigation Unit investigated the crime in which student Duong Minh Tuan was the victim.

"I have had continued contact with Tuan and see him as a contributing member of Australian society," Detective Burke told SMH.

In his letter, Burke said he hoped the Immigration Department would take into account what had happened to Tuan as they consider renewing his student visa.

According to SMH, Tuan, 23, was forced to fly back to Vietnam after Australian immigration officials declared him an unlawful non-citizen at Melbourne airport on January 8 because his visa had expired last March 15. He was also banned from returning to Australia for three years.

But Tuan believed there has been a mistake. He told SMH he has received an email from the Immigration Department “that appears to confirm his visa does not expire until March 15 this year [2014]”.

Pianist Adrian De Luca, who befriended Tuan after he heard about the savage attack, has submitted a petition which now has more than 78,000 signatures to Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to urge him to intervene in the case. However, Morrison has refused to personally intervene in this discrepancy, according to SMH.

According to Fairfax Media, Tuan has visited an Australian consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and was told to apply for a new student visa but it could take up to three months for it to be issued.

As reported by Australian media, Tuan was attacked by 3 skin-head men in June, 2012 when he was one way home from his part-time job at a 7-Eleven in Melbourne.

ABC News said Tuan was punched and kicked by two men 70 times, stabbed, and had a brick smashed over his head with such force that the brick broke in two.

They taunted him and yelled things including "you f---ing Gook" and "lie down you dog, you yellow dog" as Tuan begged for his life.

The attackers were sentenced to 10 and 4 year by a Supreme Court in Melbourne the same year.

Detective Burke told SMH that Tuan suffered multiple lacerations to his head, face and body, including a large laceration on the top of his skull, severe swelling of brain and face, multiple fractures to skull and jaws after the attack.