Australian Minister defends revocation of Haneef's visa | World News - Hindustan Times
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Australian Minister defends revocation of Haneef's visa

PTI | By, Melbourne
Jul 17, 2007 08:28 AM IST

Australian Govt's decision to revoke Mohamed Haneef's visa does not override the decision of a magistrate to grant him bail, says country's Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.

Australian Government's decision to revoke Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef's visa does not override the decision of a magistrate to grant him bail, country's Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said on Tueday.

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Defending Monday's decision to cancel Haneef's 457 temporary skills visa, Andrews said this has been done because he "reasonably suspected" that Haneef had an association with people involved in terrorism.

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Yesterday the minister intervened to keep Haneef behind bars just hours after he was granted bail by Brisbane Magistrates Court on a charge of recklessly providing support to terrorism.

However, Andrews said it cast no aspersion on Haneef's guilt or innocence. "Nothing that I have done has said anything one way or the other about the innocence or the guilt to be determined by the court of Haneef," he told Channel 7.

"What I have said, though, is that given the information that I have got and given my responsibility to the national security and the national interest, then I didn't believe I had any other alternative but to remove his passport," he added.

Haneef would receive a fair trial, Andrews said.

"There's trials that happen every day that the media have commented on. But those trials go ahead, and we have a system, and the judges of the courts in Australia are very good at ensuring a fair trial," he said.

After being held in custody for almost two weeks under anti-terrorism laws, 27-year-old Haneef was charged on Saturday with "recklessly" supporting a terrorism organisation, for providing a mobile phone SIM card to a relative involved in the failed UK car bomb attacks.

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