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 Brit "Terror Plot" - Australia halts Indian doctor's release 
  
 Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit 
  
 sent by Dave Muller (southnews) 
  
 Reuters - Jul 16, 2007 
  
 Australia halts Indian doctor's bail release 
  
 By Michael Perry 
  
 SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Australian government stopped an Indian doctor 
 on Monday from being released on bail on terrorism charges linked to 
 British car bombings by cancelling his visa and ordering him into an 
 immigration detention centre. 
  
 Doctor Mohamed Haneef, 27, has been in custody since July 2 but was 
 only charged on Saturday, sparking criticism by civil rights groups of 
 his 12-day detention without charge. 
  
 Australian Federal Police (AFP) have charged Haneef with "providing 
 support to a terrorist organization" because he left his mobile phone 
 SIM card with his second cousin, one of those linked to the attacks in 
 London and Glasgow. 
  
 Two car bombs primed to explode in London's theatre and nightclub 
 district were discovered early on June 29. The following day a jeep 
 crashed into the terminal building at Glasgow airport and burst into 
 flames. 
  
 Two people in Britain have also been charged in relation to the 
 attacks. All but one of the eight original suspects are medics from the 
 Middle East or India. 
  
 Australian Prime Minister John Howard has defended anti-terrorism laws 
 which allowed Haneef to be detained for 12 days before being charged, 
 saying the laws are essential to protect Australian citizens. 
  
 An Australian court magistrate on Monday granted Haneef A$10,000 
 (US$8,700) bail, saying he had no known links to a terrorist 
 organization and that police were not alleging that his SIM card had 
 been used in relation to the British terror plot. 
  
 Haneef's barrister Stephen Keim argued for his release, saying the case 
 against Haneef was "extremely weak." 
  
 VISA CANCELLED 
  
 But within hours the Australian government stopped Haneef's bail 
 release by cancelling his visa and ordering him placed in Sydney's 
 Villawood immigration detention centre. 
  
 "I reasonably suspect that he has or has had an association with 
 persons engaged in criminal activity, criminal conduct, namely 
 terrorism in the UK," Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews told a news 
 conference in Canberra. 
  
 Andrews said Haneef, who worked at a hospital on Australia's tourist 
 Gold Coast city, had failed a character test and he had used his powers 
 under migration law to cancel his visa. 
  
 Australia's immigration laws give the minister the power to cancel or 
 stop a visa if a person fails a "character test" or is reasonably 
 suspected of being involved in criminal conduct. 
  
 Andrews said cancelling Haneef's visa was unrelated to whether Haneef 
 would receive a fair trial. 
  
 "This is unrelated to the question of proceedings in the criminal court 
 in Brisbane," Andrews said. "This is a direct responsibility set out in 
 the migration act, this is not the first person, indeed, whose visa has 
 been cancelled." 
  
 Andrews refused to answer questions on whether his decision was a 
 rebuttal of the magistrate's bail decision. 
  
 "The magistrate in Brisbane has a set of responsibilities which she has 
 carried out and I'm making no comment whatsoever on the magistrate or 
 any decision made by the magistrate," he said. 
  
 Haneef's case was adjourned to August 31. 
  
 Haneef will now be held in immigration detention until his trial. He 
 will then be deported if he is acquitted of any crime, or once he has 
 completed any sentence. 
  
                        *** 
  
 AAP- Jul 16, 2007 
  
 Haneef challenge 'may be successful' 
  
 Experts say a legal challenge to Immigration Minister Kevin Andrew's 
 decision to cancel Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef's visa may prove 
 successful. 
  
 But while civil libertarians and the minor parties said the 
 government's controversial move undermined the rule of law, Labor gave 
 Mr Andrews its support. 
  
 Mr Andrews revoked Haneef's 457 temporary skills visa on Monday 
 afternoon on character grounds - just hours after Brisbane Magistrate 
 Jacqui Payne granted him bail on a charge of providing support to 
 terrorism. 
  
 The Migration Act allows a visa to be cancelled if a person fails to 
 meet a character test, including whether they are suspected to have 
 links to a criminal organisation. 
  
 The decision means the Gold Coast Hospital registrar will be held in 
 Villawood immigration detention centre while his court case is pending. 
  
 He is yet to enter a plea. 
  
 Human rights lawyer Greg Barns, a former Howard government adviser, 
 said the decision "looks bad". 
  
 It appeared as though the government had used the Migration Act to keep 
 Haneef in detention when the bid to stop him being granted bail failed, 
 he said. 
  
 Mr Barns said he doubted Mr Andrews' decision to cancel the visa could 
 be considered "reasonable" - the terminology required under the 
 Migration Act. 
  
 "Mr Andrews' decision can be challenged on the grounds of bias or 
 taking into account irrelevant considerations in making his decision - 
 this includes political considerations," he said. 
  
 "It is doubtful that Mr Andrews' decision is reasonable as he suggests, 
 given the weakness of the case against Dr Haneef and that he is (an) 
 innocent man." 
  
 Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo said he would lodge an application with the 
 Federal Court to review the decision within days. 
  
 Senior University of NSW constitutional law lecturer Andrew Lynch also 
 predicted Haneef would have a case to appeal against the decision. 
  
 He doubted the government was basing its decision on any extra 
 information, saying police would have used all the evidence in their 
 unsuccessful application for Haneef's bail to be refused. 
  
 The decision to cancel Haneef's visa seemed to be based on him being a 
 relative of men implicated in the UK terrorism attacks, which was 
 "unsatisfactory", he said. 
  
 And he rejected Mr Andrews' assertions that the decision to cancel his 
 visa was not prejudging Haneef's guilt or innocence. 
  
 "He's saying that Haneef's visa's cancelled because he's caught up in 
 this, whereas the bail was granted because of a judicial finding that 
 it wasn't," Dr Lynch told Sky News. 
  
 Cameron Murphy, the secretary of the Australian Council for Civil 
 Liberties (ACCL), said the government was undermining the independence 
 of the court system. 
  
 "The reason we have an independent court system is so these incredibly 
 important decisions are made for the right reasons, and aren't subject 
 to political interference," he said. 
  
 Mr Murphy said it was not the first time the government had acted in 
 such a way, likening it to the case of Melbourne man Jack Thomas, who 
 last year had a control order placed on him days after the Victorian 
 Court of Appeal quashed his terrorism-related convictions. 
  
 Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett said the decision was a perversion of 
  
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