UK bomb attacks: Australian police charge Indian doctor
Australian police charged an Indian doctor today with providing reckless support to a terrorist organisation by giving his mobile phone SIM card to two of the suspects in the failed British bomb attacks.
Mohammad Haneef, 27, is the second person to be charged over the botched attacks on London and Glasgow on June 29 and 30. The other is Bilal Abdullah, who is being held in London on charges of conspiring to set off explosions.
Haneef faces a maximum 15 years in prison if found guilty.
Australian police arrested Haneef, who moved to Australia from Britain last year, as he tried to leave the eastern city of Brisbane on a one-way ticket to India on July 2.
British police tracked a SIM card found on one of the suspects in the failed bomb attacks to Haneef, and alerted their Australian counterparts.
At a bail hearing before the Brisbane Magistrates Court, authorities claimed that Haneef provided reckless support to the bomb plot by giving his SIM card to suspects Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed when he left Britain in July 2006.
Haneef is a distant cousin of the Ahmed brothers, with whom he reportedly shared a house in Liverpool for up to two years before moving to Australia.
Federal Police Chief Mick Keelty said Haneef had been “reckless about some of the support he provided to that group, in particular the provision of his SIM card for the use of the group.”
“The specific allegation involves recklessness rather than intention,” Keelty told reporters in the capital, Canberra.
The Ahmed brothers are being held by police in Britain although neither have been charged. British prosecutors allege Kafeel was one of two men who crashed a Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas canisters and gasoline into Glasgow airport then set themselves on fire on June 30.
It was not immediately clear whether the SIM card was used in the foiled attacks.
However, official documents cited by The Australian newspaper on Friday said Haneef gave the SIM card to Sabeel Ahmed before he moved to Australia so that his cousin could take advantage of free minutes left on his mobile phone plan.
Police opposed bail before the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday, but Magistrate Jacqui Payne adjourned her decision, leaving Haneef in custody until Monday because of the complexity and the large amount of paperwork involved in the case.
Keelty said Haneef would be prosecuted in Australia unless British police “have any evidence in the UK that would sustain an extradition application”.
A suspect can only be extradited to another country if that country has enough evidence to charge the person with an offense.
Prime Minister John Howard urged caution in Haneef’s case, saying he was still entitled to the presumption of innocence.
“But without commenting on his particular circumstances, all of this is a reminder that terrorism is a global threat,” he told reporters in southern Tasmania state.
Haneef has been held in custody since his arrest at Brisbane airport on July 2.
He says he was going back to India to see his wife and newborn daughter, born June 26. Police have said they do not believe Haneef’s explanation.
Police began interrogating Haneef on Friday afternoon after withdrawing a court application to extend his detention without charge beyond Friday. Under Australia’s counter-terror laws, police can only hold a suspect without charge for extended time periods with a court order.
Haneef was charged early today after being questioned in hour-long blocks throughout Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning, his lawyer Peter Russo told reporters in Brisbane.
Russo said his client was extremely upset by the charge.
