Haneef’s family crestfallen at “baseless” charges

The family of Bangalore-based doctor Mohammed Haneef is crestfallen and angry over the decision taken by Australian police to charge him with supporting a terrorist organization.

Haneef’s wife Firdous Arshiya, who was looking forward to her husband’s early release from detention in Australia, termed the charges as “baseless, flimsy and unfair”.

Referring to the Australian police charge that Haneef supported a terrorist organization by “recklessly” giving his mobile phone SIM card to people planning car bomb attacks in the UK, Firdous Arshiya pointed out that the Australian police was aware from day one that he had left his SIM card with cousins before leaving UK.

“Why did the police wait for 12 days to press these charges against him? They could not find anything substantial against him. Hence, they have charged him with this”, she said.

Haneef had handed over the SIM card with his cousins Sabeel Ahmed and Kafeel Ahmed, two other suspects in the foiled UK terror plot, before he left London for Brisbane as the two could make use of the free calls still available on his mobile phone plan.

Firdous wondered what was wrong in her husband’s act of leaving the SIM card with his cousins.

Maintaining that her husband was innocent and not connected to any terrorist organization, much less to the failed terror plot in UK, Firdous said it was “unfair” on the part of Australian police to level such “baseless and flimsy” charges.

Firdous along with Haneef’s mother, brother and sister, had been looking forward to his arrival after the Australian police had on Friday dropped their bid to seek extension of Haneef’s custody.

But, the fresh development arising out of the charges levelled by the police against him have dashed their hopes. The family is now unsure whether Haneef will allowed to travel to India even if he manages to secure bail.

The Australian police at detained Haneef at Brisbane on July 2 as he was about to board a flight to India. Haneef was coming to India to see his new-born girl child when the police, aroused by suspicion over his one-way ticket, decided to detain him.

Firdous said Haneef was coming on a one-way ticket as he was planning to take her and the new-born with him to Australia for which fresh tickets could be bought in India.