Terror charge doctor released in Australia

An Indian doctor linked to Britain’s bungled terrorist bombings has been released from custody after Australia’s chief prosecutor said the charge against him had been a mistake.

Mohamed Haneef, aged 27, was released from a Brisbane prison today to an undisclosed residential address in the city, more than three weeks after he was arrested at an airport as he was about to fly to India.

His freedom, with reporting conditions, came after prosecutors today withdrew a charge in the Brisbane Magistrates Court that he had provided reckless support to a terrorist organisation.

The charge carried a 15 year maximum sentence. The charge alleged he gave his mobile phone SIM card to a relative in Britain a year ago as he left Britain for a hospital job in Australia.

That relative, Sabeel Ahmed, 26, has been charged by British police with withholding information that could prevent an act of terrorism.

Ahmed’s brother, Kafeel Ahmed, is believed to have set himself ablaze after crashing into Glasgow Airport and remains in a Scottish hospital with critical burns. Australia’s chief prosecutor Damian Bugg said he decided to drop the charge after he found it could not be sustained by the evidence.

“On my view of the matter, a mistake has been made,” Bugg told reporters. Bugg and the chief investigator, Australian Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, told a press conference that the case had been complicated by a 10-hour time difference between Australia and Britain which hampered communications between investigators.