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Don’t judge me by a few lines of chat: Haneef
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Bangalore, August 1
Mohammed Haneef said today that it would be wrong to judge him on the basis of a few lines of a chat room conversation. He was reacting to the release of a conversation he had with his brother Shaoib in the aftermath of the Glasgow bombing.

Australian immigration minister Keven Andrews had released a transcript of a chat room conversation between Haneef and his brother Shoaib to allegedly offset criticism that the Aussies had gone into overdrive in arresting him. According to the minister, the conversation gave enough confidence to the authorities to assume Haneef had information about the Glasgow airport attack in which his two cousins Kafeel and Sabeel were allegedly involved.

Haneef had remained incommunicado yesterday and is said to have gone for an outing to a wildlife resort in Nagarhole in Mysore district, which is owned by his cousin Imran Siddiqui. Imran had specially flown to Brisbane to represent him.

Haneef was clearly uncomfortable about explaining the transcript of the conversation to newsmen today even though he claimed that he had been interrogated about the issue. He, however, maintained that only a few lines of the chat had been released and that the chat could be understood better if one went through it in entirety. His cousin Imran, who has been acting as his spokesman since his return to India, said the conversation had been taken out of context. He said Haneef’s lawyers had filed an affidavit to get the entire transcript released so that it could be seen in a proper perspective.

Newsmen, who insisted that Haneef clear the air instead of relying on explanations from Imran, however, got little out of him. All he was ready to say was that the Australian authorities had asked him about the conversation. “They know the answers best. It has all been done”. He maintained that it was best on his part not to offer any comment on the information released by the Aussies as the same issue would come before an Australian court on August 8 when his plea for the restoration of his work visa would come up.

Haneef refused to make any comment to pointed questions like whether he denied the details of the conversation released by the Aussies and whether what his brother Shoaib meant when he said “they do not know anything about you yet”.

Imran claimed that Haneef’s legal team had requested the family not to go to the press. The legal team would send written statements to clarifications sought by the Indian media, he said, adding, “We will release statements sent by our legal team in Australia to the media and hold more press conferences if needed”.

He can still be charged: Oz

Melbourne, August 1
Mohammed Haneef could still face charges in the failed British bombing conspiracy despite a terror charge against the Indian doctor being dropped for lack of evidence, Australia’s police chief said today. Immigration minister Kevin Andrews, meanwhile, drew flak from the Opposition and Haneef’s lawyers over his “selective” release of “secret” police evidence yesterday to justify the controversial cancellation of the doctor’s work visa. — PTI