A week ago I stated that I smelled a rat in this whole Haneef Visa Cancellation thing. Well this week, I can tell you that I think there may have been a miscarriage of justice. If the information in the papers is true, then Haneef should have been detained and should still be imprisoned. It appears that he may have been released, purely based on public outrage, which in turn was based on an absence of facts rather than the merits of the case.
From news.com.au
"Importantly, there was ... a chat room conversation with Dr Haneef's brother in India on the afternoon before his attempted hasty departure from Australia," Mr Andrews said, citing a record of the second police interview with Dr Haneef.
"In it, the brother of Haneef, Shoaib, says 'nothing has been found out about you' and asked when Dr Haneef would be getting out, to which Haneef replied 'today'.
'Do not tell them anything else'
"The brother asked whether he had permission to take leave and what he told the hospital.
"Dr Haneef said he told them his baby was born in an emergency caesarean. "The brother told him to 'tell them that you have to leave as you have a daughter born, do not tell them anything else'.
"The brother then said not to delay his departure and not to let anyone else use his number in Australia, nor to give it to anyone.
"The brother added that 'auntie' told him that brother Kafeel used it in some sort of project over there," Mr Andrews said, in a reference to UK bombing accused Kafeel Ahmed.
Mr Andrews said Dr Haneef had not applied for leave until after receiving two phone calls, including one from India in which he was told there was an issue with the SIM card he had lent to his cousin Sabeel Ahmed, arrested in connection with the plot to bomb Park Lane in London and Glasgow airport.
"The whole circumstances surrounding Haneef's attempted hasty departure from Australia, including chatroom conversations, when viewed against his clear prior association with the Ahmed brothers, led me to form a reasonable suspicion as required by the migration legislation," Mr Andrews said.
Now, to my mind, the information above is not enough to confirm guilt or innocence, but is definitely enough to detain someone whilst investigations continue. I can only hope it turns out that he was innocent, and that we don't have some preventable incident occurring because he was released. and don't give me some twaddle about innocent until proven guilty, we murderers, thieves, rapists whilst we assess their guilt, the fact that someone is imprisoned does not mean the presumption of innocence has been forfeited.
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haneef chat
