Lawyers compare Haneef case to historic case

In a deft move, the lawyers of Mohammed Haneef, the Indian doctor who was accused of backing a terror outfit, have compared the medico's case to the sensational 'Children Overboard Affair'* that rocked Australia some years ago.   

Haneef was later freed after the charges against him were dropped.

The Bangalore-based doctor's legal team will appear before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Brisbane to try to gain access to 15 Immigration department documents, including an options paper, said reports from Australia.

It is learnt that Dr Haneef's lawyer, Rod Hodgson, has obtained new information that shows the Howard government hid some vital documents about the case in the lead-up to the last federal election.

"The department of prime minister and cabinet called a meeting to discuss the options which were open to the various agencies and there are parallels we think between the way they got involved in this matter and the way they became involved in the Tampa matter - the children overboard affair," Hodgson said.

The Immigration Department, the reports said, has already released more than 250 documents relating to the case.

The hearing will continue on Tuesday.

(The Children Overboard Affair was a controversy in Australia involving public allegations by the Howard government ministers in October 2001, in the lead-up to a federal election, that sea-faring asylum seekers had thrown children overboard in a presumed ploy to secure rescue and passage to Australia. Later, the incident was found untrue. The government had apparently used it as a tool to win votes, though the administratio had previous knowledge that it was a fake incident.)