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Total vindication

A distinctive feature of healthy democracy is a judicial system that is able to review unjust political and administrative decisions in a fair and independent manner. The Australian Federal Court’s dismissal of the appeal against the restoration of Mohammed Haneef’s work visa is an expression of the judicial system’s capacity to deliver speedy and effective justice. The visa of the Indian doctor, who worked as a hospital registrar, was summarily revoked i n July 2007 after he was falsely charged with providing “reckless support” to terrorism. In a ruling that is, in effect, an indictment of the John Howard government, which was voted out in last month’s general election, the Federal Court has upheld the reinstatement of Dr. Haneef’s visa, leaving him free to return and work in the country. In August, a Brisbane court quashed the revocation of his visa on “character” grounds. It held that the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, the controversial Kevin Andrews, applied the wrong test and fell into “jurisdictional error” while cancelling Dr. Haneef’s visa.

The recent judicial ruling is a full vindication of the Indian doctor, whose nightmare began when he was arrested in connection with the aborted bomb attack on Glasgow airport. After he was held for several days without being formally charged, the prosecution, unable to find any concrete evidence against him, dropped all charges. Had it stopped with this, Dr. Haneef would have merely been the victim of a shoddy police investigation and Australia’s draconian anti-terror laws. But the extraordinary circumstances under which his visa was revoked raised serious questions about the motives of the Liberal government. To begin with, the visa was cancelled after Dr. Haneef was granted bail. The government followed this up with an order that the doctor stay in detention until his trial began. Indefensibly, Mr. Andrews refused to restore the doctor’s visa after all charges were dropped. The only plausible explanation for such intransigence lay in the widespread suspicion that, with a general election round the corner, the Liberal Party was trying to make political capital by creating a security scare out of the Haneef issue. An unrepentant Mr. Andrews, now an opposition backbencher, has demanded that Kevin Rudd’s Labour government appeal the latest court ruling in Australia’s High Court. But the new Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, who has said Dr. Haneef is free to return to Australia, has ruled out an appeal at this stage. The justice done to Dr. Haneef will be enhanced if the Labour government offers him an unconditional apology as well as appropriate compensation. Meanwhile, for the Australian judiciary, it was a shining moment.

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