Australian court overturns Haneef visa ban
Tuesday, 21 Aug 2007 07:20
Australian police have dropped terrorism charges against Mr Haneef
A court in Brisbane has overturned the Australian government's decision to cancel the work visa of a doctor who was wrongly charged over the terror attacks at Glasgow airport.
Mohamed Haneef, a practicing doctor in Queensland, had mounted a legal challenge to the cancellation of his work visa, which remained in force despite charges that he supported terrorism being dropped.
Australia's immigration minister had deemed that Mr Haneef had failed a test on character grounds and thus his permission to work in the country was no longer valid.
A court in Brisbane has overturned the ruling and stated that the government used "wrong criterion" while determining the cancellation of the Indian doctor's visa.
Judge Jeffrey Spender ruled: "The minister cancelled the visa by adopting a wrong criterion; he fell into jurisdictional error by applying the wrong test. That error infects the cancellation decision. It follows that the decision must be set aside."
The government has a period of 21 days to respond to the ruling.
Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald cites Mr Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo as saying that legal proceedings would not end with the court's ruling.
"Today's decision may just be just a first step in a legal battle that is not over. He and his family are gratified by the decision, but prepared for further legal battles, if necessary.
"Until these matters are finally resolved Dr Haneef and his family feel they are unable to return to a normal life, both in India and abroad," he added.
Mr Haneef was arrested at an airport in Australia on July 2nd and was charged with supporting terrorism, after it was wrongly thought that he had provided a mobile phone SIM card to one of the men involved in the failed car bomb bids in London and Glasgow.
The charges against the 27-year-old doctor were dropped once authorities stated that information pertaining to his alleged role in the plot was incorrect.