'Haneef has every chance to win his case'

MELBOURNE: Australia's Leading criminal lawyer has said the Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef stands a favourable chance to win his case against the Australian government.

"Given the incompetence so far, there is every chance Haneef will win his case," Peter Faris told Herald Sun daily adding the Government was struggling to confine the damage by blaming the Australian Federal Police and Commonwealth DPP's office for their incompetent investigation and prosecution.

The case for restoration of Haneef's work visa will be heard in the Federal Court which may give some indication of the strength of the alleged national security evidence that Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews relied on to revoke the visa, he said.

He said Haneef now had an excellent claim for malicious prosecution and similar actions for damages arising out of improper criminal charges being laid against him, resulting in him being jailed for nearly a month.

"With Haneef's reputation destroyed and that may be that his career will never recover, I would not be surprised to see him receive half a million dollars or more in damages. If he succeeds in challenging the visa revocation, the damages will be greater, Faris said.

While Australian Prime Minister John Howard has persuaded the people that they can be confident about his Government that terror issues will be handled better than opposition Labour, a loss here would destroy that confidence, Faris said.

If Andrews loses in the Federal Court, he should resign. But if he wins it is possible Howard will suffer little electoral damage, he commented.

"DPP Damian Bugg's term expires soon and Howard must appoint a new Commonwealth DPP with a strong mandate to review the office from top to bottom. The prosecutor who misled the bail court and the public about the location of the SIM card must be in danger of losing his job," he said.

The AFP has had its reputation trashed and Commissioner Mick Keelty must take responsibility. Howard should sack Keelty and appoint a new and capable commissioner as there were real doubts about AFP's competence to investigate terrorism cases, he added.

He further asked Howard and any new commissioner to immediately consider setting up an elite agency to investigate terrorism and give it coercive powers.

"We will not get a second chance. The appropriate lessons must be learned. Apart from the Andrews issue, all these problems are bipartisan," Faris said.

He said a Labour Prime Minister would have suffered from incompetent investigating and prosecuting agencies as much as Howard.

Faris said Howard must announce an inquiry soon if he is to retain any credibility.

"If Rudd (Opposition) wins in November, he will surely hold an inquiry and even if he loses he will be able to force a parliamentary inquiry," Faris said.

"Is the Commonwealth DPP competent to prosecute terror cases? If not, should we have a specialist agency or should we perhaps tender this work out to private law firms?" he said.

He also talked about the source of the leaks and a better management to tackle it was also pointed out by the lawyer.