The Hindu : Front Page : All queries on chat transcript answered: Haneef

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Thursday, Aug 02, 2007
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All queries on chat transcript answered: Haneef

K.V. Subramanya and Sharath S. Srivatsa

Only the transcript of the whole chat will give the real picture
Reports of police dossier on his alleged links with Al-Qaeda

BANGALORE: A day after Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews released part of the transcript of the chat that Mohammed Haneef had with his brother Mohammed Shuaib, Dr. Haneef announced he had answered all the questions posed to him by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, Dr. Haneef, who was released by the Australian authorities after 27 days of incarceration in connection with the botched Glasgow airport bombing, disclosed that the Australian police had questioned him on the chat transcripts during the second recorded interrogation. “They have just [quoted] a few lines from the chat, and it is not a full chat. Once you get the whole chat, you would be able to understand what it is.”

No direct comments

Asked whether it had been used out of the context, he said: “My lawyer has advised me not to make any direct comments or allegations until the visa matter is finalised before the Australian court and any comment should come from the legal team.” His wife’s relative, Imran Siddiqui, added: “After we received a few comments, lawyer Peter Russo is working on to finalise an affidavit.”

Mr. Siddiqui said:

“He [Dr. Haneef] did chat with his brother on a regular basis. This transcript which we are talking about and the issue that Kevin Andrews is speaking [will] be discussed in court. The legal team does not want us to comment on them because they feel that will affect their arguments on August 8 … The transcript is not classified information. Now we are [asking them for] the complete second transcript … Once outside the court, the second transcript becomes a public document and we can comment on it.”

Still pushing on

Asked if the continuing allegations bothered him, Dr. Haneef said he did not want to talk about them. Intervening, Mr. Siddiqui said: “We thought it should have got over in one way. But it is still is going on. The legal team is still pushing on. We had asked for the transcript and it should have come on the seventh day after the interview. It has been more than two weeks. But the Minister is quoting from it and we know that we have answered [all] that.”

Bangalore police dossier

Meanwhile, reports in a section of the Australian media that a dossier prepared by the Bangalore police on Dr. Haneef on his alleged links with the Al-Qaeda have come as a surprise to the police here.

Police Commissioner Neelam Achuta Rao told The Hindu on Wednesday that they had not prepared any such dossier.

The dossier, first made public by an Australian television channel, has been posted on its website. The two-page dossier, marked “restricted,” appears to be a computer printout and Column Three says: “Organisation: Alleged Al-Qaeda links.” A passport size photograph of Dr. Haneef has been pasted on it. The dossier also says Dr. Haneef’s links with his cousins Kafeel Ahmed and Sabeel Ahmed have to be investigated.

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