By Neena Bhandari, IANS
Sydney/Canberra : Discontent is giving way to anger and frustration in the Australian community as Muhammad Haneef spent yet another day in prison Wednesday even as his lawyer urged prosecutors to immediately amend the charge against the 27-year-old Indian doctor.
Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo and his wife's cousin Imran Siddiqui are in the national capital Canberra to discuss and apprise Indian High Commissioner Prabhat Shukla about the case.
Russo wants the charge against Haneef amended now to address what he says are technical inaccuracies.
He told reporters in Canberra: "The charge as it reads isn't correct and from my correspondence they (prosecutors) realise that. Therefore, they were going to fix it up on August 31. That is basically not good. I want it fixed now. (The charge) basically remains the same but it's just deficient in the way it's been drafted."
Haneef has been charged with supporting a terrorist organisation by "recklessly" giving his mobile phone SIM card to people planning the failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has agreed to extend the already verbose charge to include a statement that Haneef's SIM card could have helped in preparations for the botched bomb attacks in Britain.
People are "suspicious" of Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Kevin Andrews decision to revoke Haneef's visa hours after he had been granted bail by the Brisbane Magistrate.
A taxi driver of Indonesian origin said: "The government is just creating fear in our minds about security. They must pay Haneef a huge compensation and send him on a first class ticket to India immediately."
In a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday, one reader gave 10 commandments for the age of terrorism that include: Thou shalt not share a house with thy cousin; thou shalt not repay thy cousin's loan with a bank transfer – do it in cash; thou shalt not leave Australia on a one-way ticket – make it four-way; thou shalt not leak information of ongoing investigations, unless thou art law enforcement sources; thou shalt not answer advertisements for foreign doctors to work in Australia, especially if thy first name contains religious connotations.
The investigation has become a mockery as reports in the Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday quoted a source involved in the British investigation saying that that the charge that a SIM card registered in Haneef's name had been found in the Jeep that rammed Glasgow Airport had been made "at the Australian end", and was not communicated by British investigators.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) recently admitted that the SIM card was found with Haneef's cousin, Sabeel Ahmed, eight hours after the Glasgow attack in Liverpool. "It deserves a public inquiry, that kind of mess-up," the source told SMH.
Even academicians can't help question the way investigations have gone wrong in the Gold Coast registrar's case.
Rajat Ganguly, a senior lecturer in politics and international studies at Murdoch University, told IANS: "The way this investigation has been handled so far implies that the state is somehow convinced of Haneef's 'guilt' and are now searching every possible way of pinning a crime to him. This is in total violation of due process and the principle on which it is based – that one is innocent until proven guilty."
Sharing his sentiment, Ashutosh Misra, Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute at Nathan Campus in Queensland said: "The AFP is finding the matter too hot to handle especially in the light of the tall claims that they had made regarding Haneef's connection and the evidences they claimed to have in the beginning of the episode.
"The media and civil society are finding the entire process a sham and rather unfortunate for the entire country. Such fumblings would make people more cynical of the government policies and erode their faith in the rule of law."