The Southasian habit of thrift – not wanting a good deal on a mobile phone to pass by – seems to have gotten Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef into deep trouble. Charged with providing "reckless support" to the botched car bombings in London and Glasgow in late June, Haneef is now a 'terror prisoner' in Wolston Prison, Brisbane. Currently in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, Haneef is the first suspect to be detained under the new, stringent anti-terror legislation introduced in Australia in 2004. By the 2004 amendment, indefinite detention is now permissible. The legislation also followed up on a 2003 move to empower the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to detain not only suspects, but also 'non-suspects' who may be holding information regarding possible 'terrorist' offences. If convicted, Haneef faces 15 years in jail.
Curiously, Haneef, who seemingly had only peripheral involvement in the late-June plans, has been speedily charged of the bombing attempt. Meanwhile, the driver of the jeep involved in the attack, Kafeel Ahmed, currently lying in a Glasgow hospital with burns covering 90 percent of his body, is technically not under arrest.
What is Dr Haneef's story? Last July, upon leaving the UK for Australia, where he works in a Brisbane hospital, Haneef gave his mobile-phone SIM card to his cousin Sabeel so that Sabeel could take advantage of a good deal. Sabeel Ahmed and his brother Kafeel were later alleged to have played a significant role in the car bombings. Apprehended on 2 July at Brisbane airport on his way to Bangalore on a week's leave to meet his wife and newborn daughter, Haneef and his one-way ticket were viewed by Australian authorities with deep suspicion. But Haneef's subsequent explanation will, undoubtedly, make sense to Southasians: following the delivery of his first child by emergency caesarean section, his father-in-law sent him a one-way ticket. Since his wife was contemplating joining him in his return to Australia along with their baby daughter, and since it was cheaper to buy all the tickets in India, the one-way ticket made good sense.
Besides concerns about dodgy evidence being used as the basis for charging suspects under increasingly draconian immigration and anti-terror laws, the case of the borrowed SIM card reveals a worrying tussle within the Australian establishment. Amidst growing protests by civil-rights groups against Haneef's detention without charge for 13 days, on 16 July a Brisbane magistrate charge-sheeted Haneef, but also granted him conditional bail. The official observed Haneef's 'recklessness' in giving away his SIM card, but admitted that there was no direct evidence of his involvement in the plot. Just hours later, however, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews cancelled Haneef's work visa, and extended his detention on grounds of 'character'. Andrews promised that even if Haneef turned out to be innocent, he would be deported nonetheless because his character was "so bad". Such sweeping statements are all the more surprising given that they were made on the basis of information from the same police sources that had furnished Haneef's lawyers with that led to his successful bail application.