A baby killer has lost an appeal to double the $3000 compensation he was awarded for being forced to eat vegetables instead of halal meat in prison.
But the State Government also lost its appeal against the $3000 payout to Raymond Akhtar Ali for religious discrimination.
Ali, a Muslim, has been serving a life sentence since 2000 when he was found guilty of murdering his newborn baby daughter by chopping her up.
Former butcher Ali was fed a vegetarian diet in Maryborough Correctional Centre for four months, instead of specially prepared halal meat in accordance with his religious requirements, a tribunal found last year.
Halal food needs to be blessed, slaughtered, cooked and stored according to strict rules.
A Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal member last year found Ali had been incorrectly told halal food was not available, when it was.
In his appeal Ali argued that he was deliberately deprived of halal food in 2008-09, while the tribunal found it was the result of an error, miscommunication or a breakdown in a system.
On May 21 the appeal court rejected his appeal bid.
In its appeal the State Government argued the direct discrimination finding should not have been made, because the vegetarian diet was imposed because of an error or misunderstanding.
The tribunal also had found there had been indirect discrimination when Ali was given non-halal pies, dim sims and pasties on some occasions, despite him complaining, and a ham sandwich.
But a QCAT Judicial member said the findings of direct and indirect discrimination were justified on the evidence and rejected the State’s bid to take away his compensation.
The tribunal has lifted a stay on the original compensation decision made last year.
The state has to pay Ali’s compensation into a victim trust fund, but he can get the money if there are no claims from victims, child support agencies or for other debts.
Ali’s baby, born on a Logan Village property, suffered severe fractures, and after her death her right leg was severed, she was cut in half and her reproductive organs removed.
The baby’s mother, 22, who had worked in Ali’s butcher shop and became the married Ali’s virtual “sex slave”, was found guilty of manslaughter.