Like Al Capone being charged with tax evasion

When I read about Dr Mohammed Haneef having been charged with a terrorism offence this morning, it struck me that its a bullshit charge designed to (a) give the AFP a reason to hold him longer, and (b) save face after having held him in custody for questioning for a week and a half and not having anything to charge him with till today.

He has been charged with recklessly supplying a mobile phone sim card to a terrorist organisation.

According to AFP Commissioner, Mick Keelty:

“The allegation is that Dr Haneef provided support to a terrorist group, the specific allegation involves recklessness rather than intention, the allegation being that he was 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,”

Dr Haneef, who came to Australia from Britain last year to work in a hospital on the Gold Coast, is a distant cousin of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, two of the suspects being held in Britain who allegedly drove a Jeep Cherokee into Glasgow airport. Haneef was arrested after his mobile phone’s SIM card was found in the possession of one of the British suspects, later identified by media reports as Sabeel Ahmed. Official documents cited by The Australian newspaper yesterday said Haneef gave the SIM card to Sabeel Ahmed before he moved to Australia from Britain last year so that his cousin could take advantage of free minutes left on his mobile phone plan.

For this, he could get up to 15 years in prison.

Now, I don’t know whether Dr Haneef is involved in the terrorist plot in the UK that his cousins allegedly were, or if he is, as his family claims, innocent. But, the only charge laid against him seems laughable to me, and as I said above, looks like a bullshit one to allow the police to hold him longer. Given all the effort that has gone into the investigation, its hard to believe that he’s a serious threat if giving a sim card away is all the police can find to charge him with.

Its sort of like jailing Al Capone on tax evasion charges, when the authorities couldn’t prove the real crimes.

Update (15/7/07): Another thing about this case is that the running commentary from Philip Ruddock, John Howard and Mick Keelty is hardly conducive to Dr Haneef getting a fair hearing when his day in court comes. Its not exactly the norm for such regular commentary to be made on criminal cases. I’d have thought, “a man has been arrested and is being held under anti-terrorism laws while inquiries continue” would be the usual expectation. But no, I think the thrill of having a real live terrorist, even if his connnection might be fairly tenuous, and the desire to bignote ourselves about how tough we are on terrorism, has easily won out over considerations of a fair go for the doctor. No doubt also its good to whip up a bit of a national security storm in the leadup to the election later in the year.