Fed: Haneef forgives, but not hurrying back

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-2008
Fed: Haneef forgives, but not hurrying back

By Mike Hedge, Senior Correspondent

MELBOURNE, Dec 23 AAP - The Gold Coast-based doctor deported after being wrongly accused
of having terrorist links says he bears no resentment toward Australia, the Howard government
or police who botched the case against him.

A report by a retired Supreme Court judge completely exonerated Indian-born doctor
Mohamed Haneef who was linked to a terrorist attack in Britain through a mobile phone
SIM card he once owned.

Former judge John Clarke said Dr Haneef's arrest and deportation came largely as a
result of poor practices by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Despite his reputation having been damaged internationally, Dr Haneef said he couldn't
harbour grudges.

"Not at all ... it's not in my nature," Dr Haneef told reporters.

"It has done a great damage to my reputation.

"Not only in Australia, but back in India and around the world, it has been a media sensation."

One of Dr Haneef's lawyers, Brendan Murphy, said he would seek "substantial" financial
compensation from the federal government for his client, otherwise legal action would
be taken.

"He is a man who was falsely imprisoned, the victim of a malicious prosecution and
he was certainly defamed," Mr Murphy said.

While Dr Haneef said he had no specific enmity, neither does he have any plans to return
to Australia.

Speaking by phone from the United Arab Emirates where he now works as a GP, Dr Haneef
said he would appreciate an apology from the former Howard government which revoked his
visa and deported him following his arrest.

"It would be very handy," he said.

But most of all, Dr Haneef said, he was relieved to have been cleared.

"I'm very pleased that Mr Clarke has made a very clear finding ... that I was totally
innocent of the matters which were alleged against me last year," he said.

"This report will go some way to restoring the reputation of me and my family ... right
around Australia and throughout the world.

"My immediate plans are to continue my medical work I am doing here and to look after my family.

"It's too early to talk about the long-term plans."

Dr Haneef's Australian lawyers took a far stronger line, accusing former immigration
minister Kevin Andrews of failing to perform his duty.

"I think this report is an absolute political disaster for Mr Andrews," said lawyer
Stephen Keim, SC.

Despite claims by Mr Andrews that he had been exonerated, Mr Keim said Mr Clarke found
the former minister had failed to reflect on the AFP report on Dr Haneef and had ignored
a report by Australian spy agency ASIO that was favourable toward the doctor.

Mr Keim said the Clarke report should effectively bar Mr Andrews from ever holding
a senior government post.

"The report says he didn't ask any questions, and in the circumstances it is a complete
failure by Mr Andrews to exercise in a bona fide way the powers given to him under the
migration act," he said.

"The evidence in this report shows that he doesn't have either the will or the intellectual
capacity to ask the sorts of questions and exercise the sort of judgment that a minister
of the state is required to exercise."

Mr Murphy, chairman of Melbourne law firm Maurice Blackburn which handled the Haneef
case, also slammed the AFP whose investigation, he said, was found to be "an organisational
disaster".

"Important evidence was overlooked, important evidence was ignored and some evidence
was treated with a complete lack of objectivity," Mr Murphy said.

"The officer in charge of the investigation was found to have had a closed mind, evidence
which went to Dr Haneef's innocence was ignored and some key evidence was not passed on
to the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions or to the court."

AAP mh/pmu/cdh

KEYWORD: HANEEF RESPONSE WRAP

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