An Australian court on Thursday reserved its verdict on an appeal by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews against its earlier decision to reinstate the visa of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, who was cleared of terror charges in connection with the failed UK car bombings.
On August 21, Brisbane federal court Justice Jeffery Spender found Andrews used the wrong legal test to cancel the visa of Haneef, who spent nearly a month in custody before being absolved of charges against him in July.
Spender ruled that Andrews was wrong to use Haneef's association with his second cousins and UK terrorism suspects Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed.
Haneef's lawyers today argued that Andrews acted improperly in canceling the visa because he wanted to keep the Indian doctor in jail rather than deport him and this aspect should have been taken into consideration.
Solicitor General David Bennett, on behalf of Andrews, told the full bench that changes to the Migration Act set a 'deliberately low bar' for the minister to decide if a person is not of good character because of his associations.
"Andrews had not been wrong in his act as Haneef's association with the Ahmeds went beyond family ties or casual acquaintance," he argued, adding that under the amended Act, it was difficult to allow ministerial discretion.
The court has reserved its decision to a later date which is yet to be fixed.
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