Does Dr Haneef — an ‘imagined’ terrorist who is also a Muslim — stand a chance against Australia’s anti-terrorist influenza? Haneef is guilty by association many times over. He is a Muslim, a cousin of the Glasgow ‘terrorists’, a migrant doctor to England and Australia and suspected on all counts.

Conspiracy, not friendship, is a crime. The evidence against him? That on leaving the UK, he gave his SIM card to a friend. Is that a crime? And, if the friend commits a crime, with a cell phone in his pocket, does that make the owner of the SIM card a criminal? A protest placard in Sydney incredulously asks: if recklessness with a SIM card is an offence, arrest Shane Warne! Haneef was arrested and detained for days without being charged. Amnesty International and civil libertarians the world over are aghast. He has now been charged with recklessly providing support to a terrorist organisation.

An Australian senior counsel feels that the concentrated publicity on Haneef is going to affect his trial. Some Indian papers have suggested that he was a member of SIMI — the Islamic students organisation banned in India. Haneef was arrested on July 2, 2007 and released on bail on July 16, 2007 because a magistrate was not convinced of the strength of the case against him. But his freedom was short lived. Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews cancelled Haneef’s visa because he was reasonably suspected of terrorism on the basis of information which now appears to be false, though the magistrate had released him. If Haneef exonerates himself, he may be deported by a subversive procedure of disguised extradition. That may be what Australia wants now — to avoid controversy at home.

... contd.