Posted on 07/28/2007 10:55:08 PM PDT by BlackVeil
Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said on Sunday it was "suspicious" that the Indian doctor held over failed UK bombings had left the country so quickly after charges against him were dropped.
Andrews said Mohamed Haneef's departure from Australia after he was released from custody made the 27-year-old Muslim look more suspicious. "If anything, that actually heightens rather than lessens my suspicion," he said.
Andrews also ruled out reinstating the Haneef's visa.
Haneef, whose second cousin Kafeel Ahmed was allegedly involved in last month's failed bombing attempt on Glasgow airport, was detained on July 2 as he attempted to leave Brisbane on a one-way ticket to India.
He was held without charge for several days under tough new anti-terror laws before being charged with one count of "reckless" support for a terrorist group.
But that charge was dismissed on Friday after the country's top prosecutor ruled there was insufficient evidence to support a case. Andrews had already cancelled Haneef's visa on character grounds and on Sunday said he saw no reason to alter his decision. "His visa's been cancelled and unless there is some overturning of that by the Federal Court, it's my indication that that visa will remain cancelled," Andrews said.
"Nothing has changed in terms of the circumstances in which I had to make a decision concerning Dr Haneef."
On Saturday, Andrews said he would seek to release the confidential police material on which the decision to suspend Haneef's visa was based.
Haneef left Australia in the early hours of Sunday, bound for Bangalore where he will meet his month-old daughter for the first time.
His lawyers have already lodged an application for Haneef's work visa to be restored and said their client held no grudge against Australia and would return to continue working at the Gold Coast Hospital if allowed.
"He doesn't hate Australia. He would come back if he had the opportunity," lawyer Peter Russo, who is travelling with Haneef, told AFP via telephone from Bangkok airport.
He says that he has cancelled Haneef's visa, and insists on that. Therefore, Haneef must leave the country within 24hours after being released from detention, or he is commiting a crime.
However, maybe the quote in the headline is all made up. This Haneef story is like that - every day we are given a new story which completely contradicts the previous one.
News alert to the Aussies and others!...How the hell are we going to win if P.C. socialists continue to let ‘em go???
If it was suspicious,he should have stopped it.Afterall,he is the immigration minister.
Yep! It is his call. He had Haneef in detention, on the grounds that his visa was cancelled, but in the wake of a media campaign and lots of different stories appearing (none of which make much sense) they gave Haneef his passport back.
Media campaigns have happened before & this government has withstood those.The Aussie government & police really goofed up on this one.Instead of going about investigating quietly,they went to town proclaiming that this guy had direct links to the Glasgow bombings,of which they had little proof.They would have been far better off if they worked upon his more indirect role.Quietly.
“He is some sort of a halfwit”.
I don’t think Kevin Andrews is a halfwit, personally, but you are misinformed about the legal situation.
Mr Andrews has cancelled Haneef’s visa - but that does not mean Haneef was obliged to leave Australia immediately - Haneef was entitled to appeal the decision to cancel his visa and to remain in Australia until that appeal was heard. He has chosen to leave the country prior to that appeal.
Well, the guy was leaving in the first place. And even the righteous (not saying Haneef is or isn’t) are well advised to get out of Dodge if the Sheriff’s taken against them.
A legal appeal to the Federal Court is a possibility - but in that case he would remain in detention, and be unable to work or earn an income, while clocking up fees. Most people would regard that as not a good option.
True. In fact, John Howard did try to calm down this story early on, when Haneef was being questioned, and Howard pointed out he had not been charged, and possibly never would be. It sounds as if there never was decisive evidence. But then other, bigger talkers, started making all sorts of allegations ...
The Aussie government has a lot of mud on it’s face-a good chunk of it of their own making.Compare this investigation with the thoroughly professional investigations the UK & others have conducted in the last 6 years with minimum fuzz.
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