A Supreme Court judge in Nauru has declared legislation passed earlier this month 'null and void'.

Justice Geof Muecke was ruling on a request from the group known as the "Nauru 19" who had requested government assistance with their legal costs.

Photo: supplied/ Shane Bazzi

The group is facing trial for alleged offences during an anti government protest more than three years ago.

Mr Muecke ruled the Nauru government pay $US166,606 dollars to the team of Australian lawyers who have been representing the Nauru group mostly pro bono since 2016.

He has given the government until this Friday to make the payment.

The judge has declared that the Civil Procedures Amendment 2018, passed earlier this month is unconstitutional.

He said the legislation, introduced and passed after he had been asked by the Nauru 19 to make the ruling, aimed to severely limit the opportunities for people facing criminal prosecution to obtain representation and funding.

The Act allowed for maximum legal fees payable per case to $US2,231.

He said the rule of law includes the fact that the community must respect all its individuals as good and law-abiding, unless the contrary is proved, and proved to a high standard.</s>A dying asylum seeker has been brought to Australia from Nauru. Picture: AAP

A dying asylum seeker has been brought to Australia from Nauru. Picture: AAP

The Australian government has brought a dying asylum seeker from Nauru to Brisbane for palliative care - buckling in the face of growing outrage.

The asylum seeker, identified in media reports as a 63-year-old Hazara father named Ali, is believed to have only months or weeks to live as he fights aggressive lung cancer.

The Hazara are a persecuted ethnic group from Afghanistan.

More than 2000 doctors, numerous organisations and thousands of Australians petitioned the government to bring Ali to Australia after it was reported the Department of Home Affairs wanted him to be flown to Taiwan for palliative care.

Australian Medical Association president Tony Bartone, on Tuesday, said Ali needed to come to Australia because "there is no Hazara community in Taiwan, he has no friends or family there, no-one to translate from his language, and no one to perform the Shia Muslim rituals after his death".

Dr Bartone reiterated AMA calls for asylum seekers like Ali to be treated "with compassion, respect and dignity".

Ali was quietly brought to Brisbane on Saturday evening for medical treatment, refugee advocacy groups and The Guardian reported.

Refugee Action Coalition Sydney's Ian Rintoul said the government has clearly been forced to back down in the face of "growing public outcry" that was "only going to get worse".

"It has been a shocking experience," he told AAP on Saturday.

"It's even more shocking to realise if he had been able to access proper medical facilities the cancer diagnosis may have been revealed earlier and prevented him reaching this terminal situation."

Mr Rintoul said allowing Ali to die in Australia was the least authorities could do.

"But this one act of compassion can't cover up the thousands of instances of abuse which is the reality of Nauru and Manus Island," he said.

Global condemnation about the treatment of Mexican immigrants under US President Donald Trump and Italy's rejection of a migrant ship would also have factored into the backdown, Mr Rintoul added.

The department has been contacted for comment.
A judge in Nauru declares the Civil Procedures Amendment 2018 unconstitutional and strikes it down. The act restricted the ability of those facing prosecution to obtain legal representation. The court orders Nauru's government to pay Australian lawyers acting for those who brought the legal challenge.