The minister’s move to cancel the 27-year-old doctor’s 457 work visa, hours after the terror charges against him were dropped, has raised many an eyebrow, with widespread criticism from the legal fraternity, politicians, civil liberties groups and the wider community.

The Australian media, which has played a major role in bringing the irregularities in the case to light, was waiting to hear from Andrews the reasons for cancelling Haneef’s visa. With pressure mounting from all quarters, he made public on Tuesday, some of the information to justify his decision.

He said Commonwealth Solicitor-General David Bennett, who has backed the minister’s decision, had advised him that some elements of the previously secret information, he used to cancel the Haneef’s visa, can be revealed.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the minister says that in the chat room conversation, Haneef's brother says: “Nothing has been found out about you”, “have you got permission to leave work?” and “tell them you have a newborn daughter”. The conversation is said to have taken place a day before Haneef was detained on July 2, just before flying to India on a one-way ticket. The doctor’s brother asks: “When are you getting out?” To which Haneef replied, “today”.

On Monday, the minister had said that his hand were tied as he can’t release all the information since it would jeopardise further investigations, both in Australia and overseas.

Andrews told the ABC: “He (Haneef) did not apply for leave from the hospital when he went to work at the hospital on the Monday morning and it was not until after he received two telephone calls — one from India — having been told in both calls that there was an issue about his SIM card, that he applied for leave that afternoon from the hospital”.

“The whole circumstances surrounding Haneef’s attempted hasty departure from Australia, including chatroom conversations, when viewed against his clear prior association with the Ahmed brothers, led me to form a reasonable suspicion as required by the migration legislation,” Andrews said.

However, Haneef’s lawyer Peter Russo has told the media: “It is more smoke and mirrors from the minister”.
According to Russo, the information had been available to the Director of Public Prosecutions long before the case collapsed.