Australia's Howard backs police in bungled arrest of Indian doctor

Jul 30, 2007, 7:23 GMT

Sydney - Mistakes were made in the case of an Indian doctor charged with a terrorism offence but there is no need to apologize to recently released Mohammed Haneef, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Monday.

The charge of supporting terrorism was dropped last week. Haneef returned to Bangalore at the weekend claiming he had been exonerated and should have his visa reinstated.

'Quite plainly a mistake was made in the Brisbane office of the Director of Public Prosecutions,' Howard said.

But the prime minister insisted that in tackling terrorism 'it's better to be safe than sorry' and that 'it's better to have laws that allow someone to be taken into detention and questioned when there is a reasonable suspicion.'

Haneef was held for almost a month under Australia's new anti-terrorism laws and had his work visa cancelled on the grounds that he was not a person of good character.

The 27-year-old was arrested at Brisbane airport July 2 while waiting with a one-way ticket for a flight to India.

Police initially alleged he had supplied a mobile phone SIM card to the group behind the failed bombings and that it had been found in a blazing Jeep that cousin Kafeel Ahmed is alleged to have driven into the concourse at Glasgow airport. They subsequently retracted that allegation, saying the SIM card was found with Kafeel Ahmed's brother Sabeel in a house in Liverpool some 300 kilometres away.

The location of the SIM card was one of two mistakes admitted to by the public prosecutor. The other was where Haneef had lived in Britain before arriving in Australia in September last year.

'Australia will not be apologizing to Dr Haneef,' Howard said. 'Dr Haneef was not victimized and Australia's international reputation has not been harmed by this 'mis-start' to its new anti-terrorism laws.'

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, the official who cancelled Haneef's visa, said he remained doubtful of Haneef's good character and may release details that would support his view.

'This man has had associations with people engaged in criminal conduct,' Andrews said. 'And, hopefully, when people see the further information ... they'll be able to see that there are more circumstances that haven't been made available to them to date.'

Haneef's lawyer in Australia is challenging the decision to revoke his client's visa. Andrews said he expected the legal challenge to fail.