NEWS

Haneef had tried to contact UK police

Source:PTI
August 01, 2007 09:31 IST

Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef, who was detained for nearly a month on terror charges before being released with the charges dropped, repeatedly tried to call the British police after the bungled bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, police transcripts reveal.

However, Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews has refused to say whether he considered the calls in his decision to cancel Haneef's visa, ABC reported.

Police transcripts reveal that Haneef tried to call the British police from Australia four times after the bombings.

Haneef has said he wanted to tell the police that he had left a SIM card with a cousin who was implicated in the attacks.

Last night Andrews released information about an Internet chat room conversation between Haneef and his brother Shoaib, which he said persuaded him to cancel the visa.

In the exchange, Shoaib urged his brother to leave Australia and said "Nothing has been found out about you".

But Andrews did not mention whether the phone calls to police were considered in the visa decision, ABC reports said.

"I contemplated a whole range of matters ... and I had to act on the material before me," he said adding "I came to the conclusion I did, and as I said, nothing since then has altered the position I came to.

"Indeed other information provided to me heightens or reiterates that suspicion in my mind," he added.

Meanwhile Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has accused Andrews of trying to "protect his political hide" by releasing details of the chatroom conversation.

"As I understand it this material that Andrews has released is not new. It was known to the defence's lawyers, it was around for a little while. What Andrews is doing is trying to protect his political hide," he said.

Source: PTI
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