By Afghanistan correspondent Sally Sara
The family of an Afghan asylum seeker found dead at an immigration detention centre on Cape York in far north Queensland says he received death threats from other detainees only days before he died.
Meqdad Hussein, 20, was found dead at the Scherger immigration detention centre near Weipa on March 17.
His family says he received death threats from three other detainees shortly before he died.
His mother, Gul Andam, fears her son was murdered.
It is still unclear, however, whether Mr Hussein was killed or took his own life.
Ms Andam is begging Australian officials to release her son’s body and send it back to the family, who are now living in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
A spokeswoman for the Immigration Department says the death is still under investigation and is a matter for the coroner and Queensland Police.
Mr Hussein was one of 300 Afghan asylum seekers at the temporary Scherger detention facility, which was set up in October to relieve overcrowding at the Christmas Island detention centre off Western Australia.
The Immigration Department initially said the facility would be used for about six months but has since extended that until the middle of 2012.