• by Stephen de Tarczynski (melbourne)
• Tuesday, January 13, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Despite the Kevin Rudd-led government committing to introduce all ten recommendations of the inquiry into Australian authorities’ bungled terrorism investigation of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, civil rights groups are concerned at the lack of accountability for mistakes made.

'The report is balanced, thorough and constructive. Most importantly, it will assist the government in ensuring Australia’s security agencies are working as well as they can, individually and collectively,' said the federal attorney-general, Robert McClelland, who tabled the Clarke Inquiry’s report in parliament on Dec.23 last year.

Among the recommendations of the inquiry, headed by former New South Wales Supreme Court judge John Clarke and handed to the government in November -- the delayed release was apparently due to concerns that the report had the potential to prejudice the trials in Britain of two men charged in relation to the attempted attacks in London and Glasgow in 2007 -- are a review of the roles and responsibilities of government agencies and departments in dealing with terrorism.

The recommendations ask for consideration in establishing an independent reviewer of Australia’s counter-terror laws and for a better structured and more organised response to terror-related matters.

The inquiry into the case of Mohamed Haneef was instigated by McClelland in March 2008. It followed a public outcry at the treatment of the Indian doctor at the hands of Australian authorities -- under the auspices of the John Howard-led government, whose conservative coalition lost to the incumbent Labor Party in the November 2007 general election -- in July 2007.

Haneef, who had been working as a registrar at a Queensland hospital, was charged with recklessly providing resources to a terrorist organisation eleven days after being arrested.

Prior to leaving Britain, some 12 months before the attacks, Haneef had given his mobile phone SIM card to a second cousin, Sabeel Ahmed, whose brother, Kafeel Ahmed, had driven an explosives-laden car into a Glasgow airport building on Jul. 1.

Granted bail on Jul. 16 by a Brisbane magistrate, Haneef remained in detention after then-minister for immigration, Kevin Andrews, immediately cancelled the doctor’s visa on character grounds.

Following a review by then-Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Damian Bugg, Haneef was released when the charge against him was abandoned.

The DPP said that mistakes made by authorities, including the claim that the doctor’s SIM card had been found in the car used in the Glasgow airport attack -- the card had actually been found in Liverpool during the arrest of Sabeel Ahmed, who was deported to India in May last year after being sentenced to 18 months jail in Britain for withholding information from police -- led to the charge being dropped.

While Clarke’s brief was to investigate 'the operations of the relevant Australian departments and agencies during July 2007', he nonetheless concluded that Haneef was wrongly charged.

Despite such a conclusion in a case which has become symbolic of problems associated with Australia’s anti-terror laws, concerns have been raised regarding the lack of accountability over the Haneef affair, especially in regards to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Michael Pearce, president of the civil rights organisation Liberty Victoria, told IPS that AFP commissioner Mick Keelty should quit.

'Back in September [as information from the Clarke Inquiry came to light] we thought he should resign. The Clarke report doesn’t give us any reason to change our minds about that,' says Pearce.

Clarke found that the AFP -- which dropped its 14-month investigation into Haneef in August last year -- made 'mistakes of detail' which 'were in the main the results of the need to rely on overseas information and what I think were the inadequate systems of evidence recording employed.'

Among these 'mistakes of detail' were that the AFP did not relay the fact that Haneef had attempted to contact a detective in Britain -- the doctor had received a phone call from Sabeel and Kafeel’s mother, Zakia Ahmed, who told Haneef to phone the detective so as to explain his SIM card -- prior to his attempted departure from Australia either to the immigration department for use when considering the visa cancellation or to a magistrate in the AFP’s applications for extension to his detention.

Other mistakes, besides the location of the SIM card, included the AFP’s wrong, yet numerous, assertions that Haneef had shared residences with Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed while in Britain and the AFP’s decision not to include the transcript of an e-mail between Sabeel and Haneef -- which Clarke says demonstrates that Sabeel did not have prior knowledge of the attacks -- in submissions to the magistrate and the immigration department.

Pearce says that Keelty is ultimately responsible for the AFP’s performance.

'When the organisation is shown to have operated as poorly as the AFP did in relation to the Haneef matter, the head of the organisation must take responsibility for that,' he argues.

President of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, Cameron Murphy, says that the lack of powers afforded the Clarke Inquiry have resulted in 'an unsatisfactory and unimaginative' report.

Clarke 'simply fails to address the appearance of coincidence between the way the police handled this investigation and the political convenience of the government of the day,' says Murphy.

Following the Sep.11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the Howard government introduced arguably the most repressive anti-terror legislation in Australia’s history. Although an attack has not been staged on Australian soil for decades, a pervasive climate of fear existed during the second half of Howard’s 11 years as prime minister.

However, Clarke rejects the notion that Kevin Andrews’ decision to revoke Haneef’s visa was politically motivated, despite evidence indicating the collusion of his department with the AFP in order to keep Haneef behind bars.

Currently a member of parliament’s lower house, Andrews released a statement following the tabling of the Clarke Inquiry in which he defended his role in the affair.

'The Australian people want to be safe rather than sorry,' he writes.

Haneef is believed to be seeking compensation.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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