The Hindu : Front Page : “Haneef may have had prior knowledge”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

“Haneef may have had prior knowledge”

Melbourne: A chatroom conversation Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef had with his brother in India suggest that he may have had prior knowledge of the botched terror plot in the UK, Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said on Tuesday.

Gives details

Mr. Andrews gave details of what he said was intelligence information gleaned from the conversation to back his decision to cancel the doctor’s working visa.

He released advice from Solicitor General David Bennett QC which said information provided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) was sufficient ground to revoke the visa.

“The Solicitor General has advised me that based on the material that is known now, I could make the same decision as I originally did,” he said, according to media reports here. “I will not, however, release the full ... protected material as I’ve been advised by the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police that this would have the effect of prejudicing or jeopardising further investigations,” he said.

Contact with cousins

Mr. Andrews said the Solicitor General’s advice covered matters such as contact between Dr. Haneef and his cousins in the U.K., accused of involvement in a failed plot to bomb central London and the Glasgow airport.

Conversation

“Importantly, there was a computer room conversation, a chatroom conversation, with Dr. Haneef’s brother in India on the afternoon before his attempted hasty departure from Australia,” he said.

“In it, the brother of Dr. Haneef says ‘nothing has been found out about you’ and asked when Dr. Haneef would be getting out, he replied ‘today’.”

“The brother asked whether he had permission to take leave and what he told the [Gold Coast] hospital,” Mr. Andrews said.

“Dr. Haneef said he told them his baby was born in an emergency caesarean.

“The brother told him to ‘tell them that you have to as you have a daughter born, do not tell them anything else.’

“The brother then said not to delay his departure and not to let anyone else use his number in Australia, nor to give it to anyone.

“The brother added that ‘auntie’ told him that brother Kafeel used it in some sort of protest over there,” Mr. Andrews said, in a reference to the U.K. bombing accused Kafeel Ahmed.

Mr. Andrews said he was told that the conversation may be proof Dr. Haneef had prior knowledge. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page