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Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews is facing calls for an inquiry into his handling of the Mohamed Haneef case, as he defended his decision not to reinstate the Indian doctor's work visa.
Haneef is on his way home to Bangalore, India, after a charge against him of providing support
to a terrorist organisation was dropped because of insufficient evidence.
He left Australia voluntarily on a Thai Airways flight from Brisbane, arriving in Bangkok early yesterday where he thanked his supporters in Australia.
After four weeks behind bars, Haneef was expected to reveal his side of the story during a paid interview with the Nine Network on 60 Minutes last night.
Amid intense criticism of his intervention, Andrews defended his decision on July 16 to revoke Haneef's visa and place the hospital registrar in detention after a magistrate had granted him bail.
Lawyers for Haneef are fighting in the Federal Court to have his 457 visa reinstated so he can one day return to live and work in Australia.
"His visa's been cancelled and unless there is some overturning of that by the Federal Court, it's my indication that that visa will remain cancelled," Andrews told the Seven Network.
"Nothing has changed in terms of the circumstances in which I had to make a decision concerning Dr Haneef."
Advice from the Commonwealth Solicitor-General had found it was open for the Government to cancel Haneef's visa regardless of the charges being dropped, Andrews said.
Health Minister Tony Abbott praised Andrews' handling of the matter.
"I don't think Kevin's a lonely figure, I think he's a terrific bloke and I think he's done a good job," Abbott told ABC TV.
But in his strongest criticisms yet, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie demanded an inquiry and disciplinary action against Andrews.
Beattie said there was no doubt Andrews' "outrageous" decision to cancel Haneef's visa had been a political act.
"Now, frankly, I think Kevin Andrews has got a lot to answer for," he told Network Ten.
"The Prime Minister should at the very least be disciplining him, and I think he should be the subject of an inquiry.
"Little wonder that Australian people are saying they're a bit suss about what happened."
Beattie urged the Australian Federal Police to publish the results of an investigation into who leaked incorrect information that Haneef was being investigated for a plot to blow up a Gold Coast skyscraper.
The Australian Council for Civil Liberties said it would make a public interest complaint to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity about the handling of the Haneef case by the Federal Police, Director of Public Prosecutions and the Immigration Department.
The group's president, Terry O'Gorman, said the Integrity Commissioner should investigate whether there had been an abuse of office.
"To leave the investigation of what went wrong to internal closed reviews by the [Federal Police] and the [Director of Public Prosecutions] respectively will lead to the inevitable cynicism which flows from law enforcement agencies and public prosecutors conducting inquiries into themselves," O'Gorman said.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Damian Bugg, QC, has admitted prosecutors made mistakes in the case against Haneef.
Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty has hit back at criticism over the handling of the failed terrorism case, blaming British investigators for initial errors. In an interview with Fairfax newspapers, Keelty said British police told Federal Police investigators that Haneef's mobile phone SIM card had been found inside a Jeep allegedly used by his second cousin, Kafeel Ahmed, in a failed car bombing in Glasgow on June 30. Instead, the card was several hundred kilometres away.
- AAP
