Do More With Reuters
Partner Services

Australia court rules Mohammed Haneef should get work visa

Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:17am IST
 
Email | Print | | Single Page
[-] Text [+]

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Indian doctor accused of terrorism offences and barred from Australia should have his visa reinstated after he was cleared of any wrongdoing, an Australian court ruled on Friday.

A Federal Court judge in Melbourne upheld a previous appellate court order for the government to reinstate former terrorism suspect Mohammed Haneef's Australian work visa.

Haneef, a hospital doctor, was detained by police for 12 days in July and charged with providing support to a terrorist organisation by giving his mobile phone card to a cousin accused of involvement in failed car bomb attacks in the United Kingdom.

The charges were withdrawn, but Haneef was forced to return home to India when the former conservative government refused to give back his work visa.

The new Labor government said it may appeal against the ruling to Australia's peak High Court.

A separate court said that the only Guantanamo Bay inmate convicted of terrorism offences, Australian David Hicks, will have to obey a curfew and tough restrictions when he is released from jail next week.

A judge in Adelaide, where Hicks is serving out a seven-year jail term ending early on December 29, agreed to a police request for a control order on the man dubbed "Australia's Taliban".

"I'm satisfied that coupled with the defendant's views expressed and his capability and training ... that the defendant is a risk of taking part in a terrorist act," Federal Court magistrate Warren Donald told the court.  Continued...

Dubai Debt Fears

Villas are seen on the The Palm, Jumeirah, with Atlantis, The Palm, under construction on the breakwater (crescent), May 3, 2008.  REUTERS/Jumana El Heloueh

Banks outside the Gulf played down their exposure to Dubai debt, after fears the emirate could default and even derail world economic recovery prompted a sell-off in global markets.  Full Article | Slideshow 

Photo
A man walks with the Indian national flag in front of the Taj Mahal hotel, one of the sites of last year's militant attacks, in Mumbai November 26, 2009.  REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe
One Year Later

Mumbai held tearful memorials as it marked the first anniversary of militant raids that killed 166 people.   Full Article | Full Coverage