Lessons from the Strange Case of Dr Haneef
07.27.07 - 08:49am
An all too predictable juxtaposition of news stories this week. As the government seeks yet again to resurrect plans to detain “terrorist suspects” for even longer, Australia all but admits its blunder in arresting an Indian doctor.
Australian authorities have dropped terrorism charges against Mohamed Haneef, with Director of Public Prosecutions Damian Bugg saying that in his view a “mistake” had been made. Dr Haneef had been held since July 2, having been detained trying to board a flight to India in the days following the failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow.
The case had been highly dubious right from the very start, with the accusation of giving “reckless support” to terrorism resting on nothing more than a mobile phone SIM card he had provided to a relative in the UK. Says the BBC:
The case was withdrawn during a hearing at Brisbane court on Friday at the request of Mr Bugg.
He told a news conference that a review of the case found that there was no reasonable prospect of convicting Dr Haneef on the evidence available.
“In the circumstances of this case I do not believe that evidence to prove the case to the requisite standard will be obtained,” he said. “On my view of the matter a mistake has been made.”
The case against Dr Haneef came under question after prosecution evidence made in a previous hearing was disputed.
Prosecutors had claimed that the doctor’s SIM card had been found in the burning car that crashed into Glasgow international airport on 30 June.
But it later emerged the card had actually been found in a flat in Liverpool, some 300km (185 miles) from Glasgow, where his cousin lived.
How lending someone a SIM card qualifies as “recklessly supporting terrorism” is not explained. Nor is how the location of the SIM card bears directly on Dr Haneef. Note also the prosecutor’s language, it is not just that there is “insufficient evidence” but rather there has been a real “mistake”, surely a barely disguised admission that Dr Haneef had nothing really to do with the case. The report continues:
The decision by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews to cancel Dr Haneef’s visa and keep him behind bars on 16 July - just hours after a Brisbane magistrate granted bail - will also now come into question.
Mr Andrews said earlier in the day that he stood by his decision, and Mr Keelty said he believed the grounds on which the AFP advised Mr Andrews “have not changed”.
Dr Haneef’s solicitor Peter Russo said he would fight any move to have his client deported following the dropping of the charges.
The Australian government’s determination to throw whatever books it has left at Dr Haneef despite not having any reason to believe he is involved in terrorism is par for the course and puts Brown’s determination to extend detention without charge for “terrorist suspects” in the UK to 56 days in perspective. The BBC says:
…the government looks set to press ahead with attempts to extend the period for which terrorism suspects can be held without charge, beyond the current 28 day limit.
Mr Brown said one option was to double it to 56 days, subject to parliamentary scrutiny and a judge’s approval.
He said there had been 15 attempted terrorist attacks on Britain since 2001 and 30 people had been convicted so far this year.
Ministers say it is right to consider extending it because of the increasing complexity of some plots - but the Tories, Lib Dems and some Labour backbenchers have opposed previous attempts to do so.
The Australian case, various British detention cases over the last few years and, of course, Guantanamo Bay, illustrate the dangers of the state having the power to lock people up without legal recourse. Once the state has you in its sights all kinds of factors come into play, totalitarian paranoia and the sheer bloody-minded refusal to admit a mistake among them.
Civil liberties groups and, hopefully, a cross-party alliance of MPs, have a difficult fight on their hands to stop the British Government’s creeping power grab once again.
The case of Canadian Maher Arar comes to mind.
At least he received an apology from the Canadian government, however he’s still waiting for one from the US.