Brother asked Haneef to contact UK police

Melbourne, Aug 23: The brother of cleared terror suspect Mohammed Haneef had urged him to provide his Indian contact details to the UK police before leaving Australia.

The entreaty was made by his India-based brother Shuaib Haneef in the controversial chat-room conversation whose transcript was released yesterday by the Indian medic's lawyers.

The revelation seems to have weakened the argument Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews has been forwarding, even further.

The transcript was released by Dr Mohammed Haneef's lawyers yesterday to correct ''continuing attempts being made to slander his name by innuendo and selective release of information by government and federal police spokespeople.'' The Immigration Minister was still insisting that he did not misled the public and unfairly victimised the Indian doctor by making selective quotes from the chat-room conversation.

''That is absolutely not true, his spokeswoman told the Herald Newspaper. That was only the material that the AFP would enable the minister to release. There is still a range of material we could not release on security grounds,'' she added.

The Australian Minister had hastened to cancel Mohammed Haneef's temporary Australian visa after he was granted bail by a Brisbane magistrate on 16 July.

The decision to cancel visa was overturned by Brisbane Federal Court on Tuesday.

The Australian Minister has been providing selective briefings from the internet chat-room conversation, which was carried out in Urdu, to the media. Kevin Andrews has been emphasising on Shuaib Haneef's words, ''Tell them you have to as you have a daughter born.

Do not tell them anything else.'' The selective release by the Australian Minister has been implying that the terror suspect may have had inside information about the failed bombings in the UK in late June.

But the transcript, published by the leading Australian dailies in today editions, shows that Shuaib had asked his brother to contact a Scotland Yard officer, Tony Walker.

''I am not able to get at his phone,''Dr Haneef was believed to have replied according to the translated version of the conversation. His brother then said, ''Tell him the phone number and come.'' Dr Haneef repeatedly tried, according to his lawyers, to contact the British police. While the Australian Minister and Federal Police have never contested this fact, they did not mention Shuaib Haneef's further urging of Dr Haneef to assist police with their inquiries.

The Indian doctor had also reportedly made all the arrangements for his Indian trip much before the failed bombings. Mohammed Haneef was to go to India to see his newly-born daughter in Bangalore.

UNI