No regrets of handling Haneef case, says former Aus minister

Melbourne, Oct 16 (PTI) Former Australian immigration
minister Kevin Andrews, who played a key role in the bungled
terrorism investigation case of Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef,
has said he has "no regrets" of handling the matter.

"I make no apology for having made a decision in the
national interest for the benefit of the people of Australia,"
Andrews who Wednesday faced the inquiry probing the case of
Haneef, falsely implicated on terror charges, said.

Meanwhile, fresh informations came to light Wednesday
after Andrews gave evidence to the inquiry, chaired by former
Supreme Court judge John Clarke, at a closed hearing in
Canberra.

It was reported by 'The Australian' Thursday that
police acknowledged an official document, prepared just days
before Mohamed Haneef was charged with a single count of
supporting terrorists, that they had "insufficient evidence"
to charge him.

Information was contained in pile of documents obtained
under Freedom of Information laws by the legal team
representing the Gold Coast-based Indian doctor, who was
arrested on terrorism charges and later released.

The documents also provide fresh detail about Australian
Federal Police (A.F.P.'s) suspicions on Haneef and his friend
Mohammed Asif Ali. They note that pictures of car interiors,
car boots and images from the scene of a recent terror attack
were found on Dr Asif Ali's computer.

The documents contain quotes from a previously
undisclosed chatroom conversation in which an unnamed friend
asks Haneef "if he has killed anyone yet" - a reference his
lawyers' said was a joke relating to Haneef's pending medical
exams.

Contact details for one of the men suspected of
involvement in the Glasgow airport attack, Bilal Abdullah,
were found in Haneef's email system.

Haneef's legal team said the contact details were
provided to him by his second cousin, Sabeel Ahmed. There is
no known evidence that the two men had any email contact.

In an official A.F.P. review of evidence, dated between
July 9 and July 11, an unnamed official warned that the case
against Haneef was weak. "Having reviewed the material in
possession of the investigation team at this stage and
assessed that against the offences outlined above, I do not
believe that I currently have sufficient evidence to charge
Haneef," the document reads.

Despite the assessment, A.F.P. charged Haneef on July 14
with a single count of providing reckless support to a
terrorist organisation.

Haneef's legal team said the document is highly
significant, as it was prepared at a time when all of the main
pieces of evidence seemed to have been known to police. The
A.F.P. assessment is virtually identical to the assessment of
the Queensland Police, who repeatedly advised the A.F.P. there
were no grounds on which to charge Haneef.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (A.S.I.O.)
advised the Howard government that Haneef did not pose a
threat to national security. Haneef's lawyer, Rod Hodgson,
said A.F.P.'s assessment raised questions about why Haneef was
charged, despite all involved acknowledging that the case was
weak.

"If there was nothing more of substance between (that)
document and when the charge was laid, it raises again why
were the charges ever laid? What agenda was at play in
motivating the decision?" Hodgson told the newspaper.