Australian Immigration officials worked with Mohamed Haneef's legal team to keep him out of the media spotlight during his final days in Australia, arranging a decoy van and a secret hideaway while claiming he was free to speak openly and move around publicly.
A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews confirmed on Saturday the department had arranged for a decoy vehicle to distract the media waiting for Haneef to leave the Brisbane immigration offices on Friday night after a charge he supported a terrorist organisation was dropped.
She said the department also agreed to keep secret the name of the hotel where Haneef spent Friday night and much of Saturday but denied it was done to help limit the fallout for the government.
"The decoy and safe location for Haneef and his lawyer, in fact, was done together by the department and Haneef's legal team," she said adding, "That, as I understand, was done for Haneef to be able to have some time out of the glare and it was very much done together."
While the minister's spokeswoman insisted Haneef was free to speak publicly, Russo was said to have been pressured to keep quiet.
"Brisbane immigration officers made it very clear to Peter Russo that they did not want Haneef to be made available to the media before he left the country," the lawyer's spokesman was quoted as saying by The Australian newspaper.
"We can't say this was a formal direction but it was a very strong request. It did not seem prudent to go against the strong request from immigration lest it be regarded as a breach of the Immigration Department's rules," spokesman said.
But despite their efforts to keep Haneef out of the media spotlight, Nine Network channel's 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown managed to film a brief interview.
Russo's spokesman said he had no knowledge of the interview brokered between Siddiqui and 60 Minutes producer Glenda Gaitz.
A Nine Network spokeswoman said Gaitz had stayed in contact with Russo and Siddiqui in the days leading up to Haneef's departure, and secured the interview as a result of "persistence and sheer tenacity on her part."
"She just kept making the calls," the Nine spokeswoman said, again refusing to confirm or deny reports more than 150,000 Australian dollars were paid for the interview.
While the Immigration Department paid for Haneef to fly economy class to India, via Bangkok, it is understood Thai Airways upgraded him to first class to prevent traveling media from moving about the cabin to interview and film him.
As Haneef was flying home to see his wife and baby daughter on Sunday, his former home, a unit at Southport on the Gold Coast, was being given fresh paint and carpets to take a new tenant.
Having been evicted for not paying rent, Haneef's household goods will remain in storage for three months.
While Haneef has said he wants to return to Queensland, and he theoretically still has a job at the Gold Coast Hospital, he will not be able to work in Australia without a visa.
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