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Lawyer says Indian doctor heading back home after release

An Indian doctor cleared of involvement in failed British car bombings left Australia for his homeland yesterday after authorities handed back his passport, his lawyer said.

Australian officials told Mohamed Haneef he was free to leave a day after the doctor was released from custody into house arrest, after the case against him collapsed.

While Haneef no longer faces terrorism charges, his Australian working visa remains suspended and Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said he would fight any attempt to have it restored.

"I do not propose to change my decision and the Commonwealth will continue to resist this appeal in the Federal Court," Andrews told reporters.

Andrews said Haneef's lawyers had sought permission for him to leave Australia after his release and the government agreed because the doctor would not have been allowed to stay without a visa anyway.

Andrews, who has faced severe criticism for exercising a little-used ministerial power to cancel Haneef's visa, said he would seek to release the confidential police material on which he based the decision.

Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo said authorities had gagged his client from speaking to the media before his flight out of Australia last night to join his family in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

Russo said Haneef would continue the fight to clear his name from his homeland.

He called for the Australian government to apologize over the 27-year-old's treatment and urged Andrews to immediately reinstate his visa.

"He [Andrews] seems to be the only person in Australia who still thinks Dr Haneef is guilty of something," Russo said.

He said Haneef was homesick and wanted to see his family, including his wife Firdous, who gave birth to a daughter last month, shortly before his arrest.

"This has been a severely traumatic time for him, made worse by the fact that his wife has just had their first child, a baby Dr Haneef has not even seen yet. His mother is also ill and he wants to be there with her," Russo said.

Haneef's departure ended an ordeal that began on July 2, when he was arrested at Brisbane Airport, then spent almost four weeks in custody as police charged him with "reckless" support for a terrorist group.

The charge centered on a mobile phone SIM card that Haneef last year gave to his second cousin Sabeel Ahmed, who has been charged with withholding information following last month's failed bombings in London and Glasgow.

Sabeel's older brother Kafeel Ahmed remains under police guard in a British hospital with severe burns after allegedly ramming a blazing car into Glasgow Airport on June 30.

The case against Haneef failed after red-faced prosecutors admitted they falsely claimed in court that his SIM card was found in the burning car and inaccurately said he had shared a flat with some of the British bomb suspects.

Russo said Australia's counterterrorism laws needed to be examined to ensure the case was not repeated.
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