Haneef v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

5 comments ↓

#1 T Cell on 08.21.07 at 9:06 pm

Andrews has yet again been made to look like a fool.

He has been a failure as a minister and should be removed at preselection for his safe liberal seat. It should be given to someone with prospects and a future. After the election, whichever way it goes, he is due for a stretch on the backbench.

The way he has smeared this man, in an effort to save his own political skin, is one of the lowest things that I have seen from a public official in this country.

#2 Theodore on 08.21.07 at 10:40 pm

The Oz:
KEVIN Andrews is a political amateur, the Maxwell Smart of national security, whose rush to demonise Dr Mohamed Haneef should have resulted in the Immigration Minister being sacked a month ago.

Andrews has survived, despite some of the shabbiest decision-making since the Tampa scandal, because his leader, Prime Minister John Howard, is up to his neck in it.

#3 T Cell on 08.23.07 at 5:58 am

Interview discredits claim by Andrews

Hedley Thomas | August 23, 2007

CLAIMS by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews that his decision to cancel Mohamed Haneef’s visa was based on much more than a mobile phone SIM card given to a second-cousin have been undermined by the release of the second police record of interview.

Police officer Adam Simms, who questioned Dr Haneef during the second interview last month, told him: “Tell me exactly. Now let’s not forget, Mohamed, the reason you are sitting here and the reason you’ve been in police custody is because of this issue with the SIM card — now it’s causing you a lot of grief. We need to be clear as to what is happening with this SIM card. OK?”

A year before the foiled June 29-30 terror acts in London and Glasgow, Dr Haneef had given a SIM card, which had some unused credit, to his second-cousin, Sabeel, who is not accused of being directly involved in the attacks. Sabeel’s brother Kafeel died after suffering serious burns in a Jeep Cherokee in the attack on Glasgow airport.

The transcript shows Dr Haneef also tried to explain to the Australian Federal Police the context of a reference in a chatroom exchange with his brother, Shoaib, translated from Urdu, to a “project” involving Kafeel.

Late last month amid calls for his sacking, Mr Andrews selectively released incomplete portions of the transcript from the conversation on July 2 — the day Dr Haneef tried to return to India — including the Urdu-to-English reference to Kafeel being involved “in some sort of project over there”.

Mr Andrews has consistently said that his suspicions had been heightened by this information and other secret material he had received from the police. The reference to “project” has been characterised as pointing to a premeditated terror act of which Dr Haneef was aware. But in the interview Dr Haneef said the reference to “project” referred to a PhD exercise that Kafeel had been completing at England’s Cambridge University.

The interview also scotches reports that police suspected Dr Haneef was plotting to attack the world’s tallest residential building, the Q1 tower on the Gold Coast. Police showed Dr Haneef numerous pictures downloaded from his seized computer laptop, including some showing him and his wife standing in front of the building. He was asked a handful of innocuous questions about the picture.

Lawyers for Dr Haneef yesterday cited a need for transparency and openness in the controversial case as they defied a formal AFP request and posted the entire 378-page record of interview on websites.

The release drew strong criticism from the AFP, which confirmed it had complained to Queensland’s Legal Services Commission about the conduct of Dr Haneef’s lawyers. The AFP denied late yesterday that it had improperly leaked information, but accused Dr Haneef’s lawyers of running the case in the media.

The interview, conducted on July 13-14 after Dr Haneef had been held in AFP custody in Brisbane without charge for 12 days, canvassed medical training, family ties, his newborn daughter, religious views, finances, communications, travel, and an internet chat room exchange with his brother in India.

In describing his gift of the SIM card to Sabeel last year, Dr Haneef says: “He wanted the SIM card use for the free minutes. I told you about that, so he wanted to extend the contract and then he asked me ‘if you could give it to me, I’ll extend it’. And when I gave it to him I said that ‘if you want to extend it, I’m cancelling my direct debit’.”

The case against Dr Haneef collapsed last month amid a series of police and prosecution errors, leading to his return to India. The Federal Court found on Tuesday that Mr Andrews had made the wrong decision when he cancelled Dr Haneef’s visa.

Solicitor Peter Russo said he and Dr Haneef were fed up with the ongoing peddling of innuendo and half-truths.

“There is no secret squirrel information in there,” Mr Russo said. “Releasing the transcript of the second interview shows Dr Haneef had nothing to hide.

“He wants all of the matters raised with him by federal police and his answers to those questions put into the public arena because of the continuing attempts being made to slander his name by innuendo.”

Mr Russo said he suspected the police had taken longer than normal to provide the transcript to Dr Haneef because “it clearly shows what we have said all along — Dr Haneef was at all times trying to assist police”.

But the AFP last night criticised the release of the information, denied that its own officers had selectively leaked information to Dr Haneef’s detriment, but suggested there had been “inappropriate conduct” by other agencies which “will be referred to the appropriate authorities”.

“The continuing attempts by Dr Haneef’s defence team to use the media to run their case is both unprofessional and inappropriate and the AFP has raised this aspect with the Queensland Legal Services Commission. The AFP has acted appropriately throughout the investigation.”

#4 muslim_perth on 08.24.07 at 12:09 pm

mr bean can do a far better job than andrews….

#5 James on 09.27.07 at 1:58 pm

Let’s hope that the Aussie Governments’ appeal dies a well deserved death. This whole affair was a ugly train wreak, a total miscarriage of justice.

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