“Recklessness”, and not intent, is reportedly the base of charge against the 27-year-old doctor. The family of Haneef’s — ever since his arrest in Brisbane — had maintained that Haneef, before moving from Britain to Australia, gave his SIM card to Sabeel.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Firdaus Arshiya, Haneef’s wife, reiterated that he had passed on the card to Sabeel because his two-year phone plan was valid for another year.
“Sabeel used to call my husband on his (Haneef’s) SIM card... but their conversations were on topics like scope of employment in the medical sector in Australia,” she said.
Subsequent to the expansion of global terror networks, telecommunication laws the world over have become more stringent.
Mobile service providers also stipulate in their customer agreements that the subscribers are not entitled to transfer SIM cards or phone numbers to others, without the service provider’s consent.
The agreements also caution subscribers against use of services for purposes that affect national interest.
SIM cards, bearing unique cellular phone numbers, have of late been tapped extensively to crack crimes. Investigators in Andhra Pradesh had made use of a SIM card recovered from a seized mobile phone attached to an unexploded improvised explosive device (IED), during its investig ation into the recent Mecca masjid terror attack.