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CANBERRA - The Federal Court's decision yesterday to quash the cancellation of Dr Mohamed Haneef's visa is a stinging rebuke to the struggling Howard Government.
Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, who cancelled the temporary work visa of the doctor wrongly accused of supporting terrorism, said after the court gave its judgment: "When I made the decision to cancel Dr Haneef's visa, I made it in the national interest and I stand by that decision.
"I have instructed the Australian Solicitor-General to lodge an appeal."
The court decision gives Haneef the right to return to Australia to continue medical studies on the Gold Coast, but the court stayed its ruling for 21 days to give the Government time to contest it.
The ruling is a humiliating defeat in what has already been a highly embarrassing affair for the Coalition Government.
Haneef's lawyer, Peter Russo, told ABC radio his client wanted to return to Australia to continue his studies, but there were "issues" - including possible family resistance.
The Federal Court decision has shown new flaws in what became a dark comedy of errors after the failed bid to bomb London and Glasgow in June, and revelations that Haneef was related to two suspects.
The ruling also came as a new poll confirmed not only Labor's strong lead in the run-up to this year's election, but sliding confidence in Prime Minister John Howard's ability to manage the economy.
The economy and national security are Howard's greatest electoral assets and the Newspoll and the Government's defeat on Haneef will add further to perceptions of a leader losing his grip.
Analysts have also warned that bungling over the Haneef case - added to problems with other terrorism charges - could lower public confidence in the welter of legislation passed since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, and damage confidence in Australia's security agencies.
Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke, who initially supported Andrews' decision to cancel Haneef's visa, yesterday called for an independent judicial inquiry into the Government's handling of the case.
"We need to preserve public confidence in our immigration and anti-terrorism laws and the way to do that is to make sure we have an independent judicial inquiry."
Haneef, a registrar at Gold Coast Hospital, was arrested by federal police shortly after the London and Glasgow bombings in what at the time seemed a glowing example of international co-operation and efficiency.
But in the 12 days of detention without charge that followed, deficiencies in the Government case became apparent, made worse by a series of leaks suggesting that even more serious offences were yet to be revealed.
Police were finally forced to end applications for extensions to Haneef's detention and to charge him with recklessly providing resources to a terrorist organisation.
The basis of the charge was that Haneef had given a second cousin, Sabeel Ahmed, a mobile-phone SIM card containing unused credit before leaving Britain last September to work in Australia.
Federal police later told a Brisbane court that the card had been found in the possession of Sabeel's brother Kafeel, who was fatally burned in the attempt to ram an explosives-laden Jeep into a Glasgow airport terminal.
In fact, the card was with Sabeel Ahmed, hundreds of kilometres away in Liverpool.
Yesterday, the Australian newspaper reported that the connection was even more tenuous.
Sabeel Ahmed, who was charged with withholding information, has now been shown not to have known in advance of the attack on Glasgow airport and to have learned of it - and his brother's role - 90 minutes later.
An email from Kafeel, unopened until after the attack, told Sabeel that he would be shocked to read what Kafeel was about to tell him of his involvement in terrorism.
When Haneef was freed on bail - contrary to Government expectations - Andrews immediately revoked his visa and ordered his detention at Sydney's Villawood migrant detention centre.
This sparked another serious of blunders that ended only when police dropped the charge and he was put on a plane back to India.
Yesterday, Federal Court Justice Jeffrey Spender ruled that Andrews had used the wrong criterion to cancel Haneef's visa and ordered its return.
"The minister cancelled the visa by adopting a wrong criterion," Spender said. "He fell into jurisdictional error by applying the wrong test."
Andrews had cancelled Haneef's visa on character grounds based on his relationship with the Ahmed brothers.
Instead, had he relied upon advice that Haneef was considered a person of interest by British counter-terrorism agencies and had in Australia been charged with providing resources to a terrorist organisation, Andrews would have been justified in his action.
