July 29, 2007	Sunday	Rajab 13, 1428

SYDNEY: An Indian doctor cleared of involvement in failed British car bombings left Australia on Sunday (Saturday night in Pakistan), vowing through his lawyer to remove any lingering stain on his character.

Mohamed Haneef’s departure came hours after Australian officials returned his passport and said he was free to leave following his release from custody on Friday when the prosecution case collapsed amid a series of blunders.

But Haneef’s Australian working visa remains suspended on “character grounds,” even though he no longer faces terrorism charges, and Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said he would oppose any attempt to have it restored.

“I do not propose to change my decision and the Commonwealth will continue to resist this appeal in the Federal Court (due on August 8),” Andrews told reporters.

Andrews said Haneef’s lawyers had sought permission for him to leave Australia after his release and the government agreed because the doctor would not have been allowed to stay without a visa anyway.

The minister, who has faced severe criticism for exercising a little-used discretionary power to cancel Haneef’s visa, said he would seek to release the confidential police material on which he based the decision.

Haneef’s lawyer Peter Russo said the government placed a media gag on his client as a condition of departure, with the doctor limiting himself to a thumbs-up sign before boarding a Bangkok-bound plane leaving Brisbane Airport.

Media reports said Haneef would arrive in his hometown of Bangalore in southern India on Monday.

Russo said Haneef was not deported but left voluntarily and would continue the fight to clear his name from India, fearing the cancelled visa would blemish his record and jeopardise future work and travel prospects.

The lawyer called for the Australian government to apologise over the 27-year-old’s treatment and urged Andrews to reinstate the visa. “He (Andrews) seems to be the only person in Australia who still thinks DrHaneef is guilty of something,” said Russo, who accompanied Haneef on the plane, along with the doctor’s cousin Imran Siddiqui.

He said Haneef was homesick and wanted to see his family, including wife Firdous, who gave birth to a daughter last month, shortly before his arrest.

“This has been a severely traumatic time for him, made worse by the fact that his wife has just had their first child, a baby Dr Haneef has not even seen yet,” Russo said.

Haneef’s departure ended an ordeal that began on July 2, when he was arrested at Brisbane Airport, then spent almost four weeks in custody as Australian police charged him with “reckless” support for a terrorist group.

The charge centred on a mobile phone SIM card that Haneef last year gave to his second cousin Sabeel Ahmed, who has been charged with withholding information following last month’s failed bombings in London and Glasgow.

Sabeel’s older brother Kafeel Ahmed remains under police guard in a British hospital with severe burns after allegedly ramming a blazing car into Glasgow Airport on June 30.

The case against Haneef failed after red-faced prosecutors admitted they falsely claimed in court that his SIM card was found in the burning car and inaccurately said he had shared a flat with some of the British bomb suspects.—AFP