By Ross Peake
Terrorism charges against Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef could be dropped after an extraordinary personal intervention in the case late yesterday by Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Damian Bugg, QC.
He will take the highly unusual step of personally reviewing all the materials in the case, which has been plagued with mistakes and leaks.
Mr Bugg will review the handling of the terrorism charge, not the cancellation of Haneef’s working visa, but he will have access to the secret material that has been withheld from Haneef’s legal team.
While the intervention is a damning indictment of the handling of the case, it could provide the Howard Government with a circuit-breaker in the increasingly embarrassing affair.
Haneef, 27, is charged with providing support to a terrorist organisation by recklessly providing his mobile phone SIM card to a relative later accused of being linked to a failed plot to bomb central London and Glasgow Airport.
If the charge is dropped, Haneef will have to leave or be deported because the Federal Government has cancelled his working visa.
Haneef’s solicitor, Peter Russo, said in Canberra last night his client would leave Australia voluntarily if allowed to do so, after being at the centre of a storm of controversy. Mr Russo only learnt of the DPP’s intervention at 5pm as he was about to speak to the media. “It’s a positive step in a very long saga,” he said.
It was possible Haneef could be freed after the review, he said.
“It’s comforting that someone is going to look at the material and hopefully that will put me in a stronger position either to confirm what my belief is about the case or disprove my belief about the case.
“It is an important case and he [Mr Bugg] obviously regards it as serious.
“[The review] may not be a reflection of the weakness [of the case].
“It may more be a reflection that some guidance needed to be given to the matter because we’ve had continual leaks from unknown sources which can only be attributed to the AFP or the Queensland Police force or the joint task force that was investigating this matter.”
Mr Russo said the DPP’s review might politically suit the Government.
“Even though my client is desirous of resuming his occupation at the Gold Coast hospital as a doctor, because he’s been in isolation for so long, I think he’d be content to go home to be with his wife and child,” he said.
When Haneef was arrested at Brisbane Airport, he told police he was returning home to see his wife and new baby.
Prime Minister John Howard said last night the DPP’s review had nothing to do with his Government.
“The prosecution is a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions and the federal police,” he said.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Russo called on the prosecution to strike out or amend the terrorism-related charge, saying it did not constitute an offence as it stood.
He said he had been denied a hearing tomorrow in a Brisbane court on the issue.
“It was never going to be struck out purely on that basis but I was pressing them to amend the charge so the charge makes sense so I could go to the next step and ask for particulars,” Mr Russo said. “I don’t know if that was a stimulus for someone to have a look at it.”
Mr Russo came to Canberra with Haneef’s cousin, Imran Siddiqui, to discuss the case with the Indian high commissioner, Prabhat Prakash Shukla. However, at the last moment, the location of the meeting was kept secret, apparently at the request of the high commissioner.
Mr Bugg said clearly not every matter which was prosecuted by his office was reviewed by him.
“But there are matters which have developed as this case has progressed which I am examining, and a broader review of the available material and the proceedings to date is the best way to examine these matters appropriately,” he said.
It was revealed last week that, contrary to evidence presented to the Brisbane Magistrates Court by prosecutors, Haneef’s SIM card was not found in the burning jeep that crashed into a terminal at Glasgow Airport.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty was also forced to deny reports police had written the names of overseas terrorism suspects on Haneef’s personal diary, and that Haneef was being investigated for plotting to bomb a Gold Coast skyscraper.
Mr Russo denied reports in the Indian media yesterday that Haneef was planning to sue the Federal Government for millions of dollars over his imprisonment.
Law Council president Tim Bugg welcomed the announcement by the DPP.
“It is obviously very undesirable for there to be debate of the type there has been, in relation to matters directly affecting the charge,” he said.
– The Canberra Times (July 26, 2007)
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