The Hindu : Front Page : Haneef gets bail but remains in custody

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Tuesday, Jul 17, 2007
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Haneef gets bail but remains in custody

P.S. Suryanarayana

Immigration Minister revokes work visa

SINGAPORE: An Australian magistrate on Monday granted Brisbane-based Indian doctor, Mohammed Haneef, conditional bail in the case relating to his alleged links to suspects behind the recent “terror plots” in London and Glasgow.

Virtually nullifying the court order, though, Australia’s Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews immediately cancelled Dr. Haneef’s work visa and imposed on him a new order of detention on that basis. His lawyers said they would consider appealing against this executive intervention.

Speaking in Canberra, Mr. Andrews said: “I have come to the conclusion that he [Dr. Haneef] fails the character test. … I reasonably suspect that Dr. Haneef has had, or has, an association with persons involved in criminal conduct, namely terrorism.”

The Minister is understood to have kept open the option of deporting Dr. Haneef at an appropriate time.

There was no immediate confirmation of late-night reports that he was shifted to the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney from Brisbane, where he should have been released on bail following the magistrate’s order. The conditions stipulated for bail, granted in “special circumstances,” were that he should report to the police and remain under surveillance.

The Minister’s action soon came under a hail of fire from lawyers and human rights activists in Australia. They argued that the legal principle of presumption of innocence was being jettisoned under the country’s new anti-terror laws that were cited to detain Dr. Haneef since July 2. After a widely criticised delay in investigations, he was on Saturday charged with “providing support to a terrorist group.”

“Not directly involved”

Disposing of his bail application, filed on the basis of a not-guilty plea, Magistrate Jacqui Payne observed, in Brisbane, that Dr. Haneef was not directly implicated in the failed plots in London and Glasgow. Ms. Payne said there was no allegation that his mobile phone memory card was used for a terror offence. He was accused of having “recklessly” given that SIM card to two of his second cousins, who turned out to be suspects now.

Taking into account Dr. Haneef’s employment graph and his pre-charge record of nil criminal history, Ms. Payne agreed to grant him bail on the basis that he would be placed under police surveillance on being released.

A surety of 10,000 Australian dollars was also insisted upon besides other norms of good behaviour.

As Dr. Haneef’s lawyers and friends began mobilising the surety amount, the Minister intervened with an executive order in the “national interest,” regardless of the judiciary’s parallel jurisdiction. Mr. Andrews declined to disclose the privileged information that he cited to justify a renewed detention.

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