Haneef lawyers to fast-track appeal to get withheld documents

Wed, May 14 06:05 PM

Melbourne, May 14 (PTI) Lawyers for Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, wrongly accused of involvement in the failed UK car bombings, today won a bid to fast-track a court challenge to secure confidential official documents relating to his case. The Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal agreed to fast-track the matter for a hearing on June 16 and 17 so that the documents withheld by the Immigration Department could be provided to the judicial inquiry into the handling of Haneef's case before it reported to the federal government on September 30.

If the appeal to the tribunal proves successful, Haneef's legal team plans to provide the documents to the judicial inquiry led by former Supreme Court judge John Clarke, the AAP reported. It quoted Haneef's Lawyer Rod Hodgson as saying that the appeal was lodged last week following the Immigration Department's decision to withhold some documents that Haneef's legal team had sought under the freedom of information legislation.

Hodgson also said the upcoming hearing could become irrelevant if the department chose to provide the withheld information to the inquiry. However, the inquiry did not have coercive powers to force the department to provide any information, he said.

"We can't place our full reliance in the promises of cooperation from those authorities," he said adding "we are pleased to have been able to fast-track it because we think that it is vital that we give the Clarke inquiry every bit of documentation we can obtain." PTI.

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