Freed Indian doctor to leave Australia

An Indian doctor freed from jail after Australia dropped terrorism charges against him left Australia yesterday after receiving the go-ahead from immigration officials, his lawyer said.

Mohamed Haneef was released from prison on Friday after Austra-lian authorities abandoned the case against him, saying there was a lack of evidence to prove his connection with a failed car bomb plot in Britain.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Haneef, 27, would be allowed to leave Australia, but the government would not reinstate his work visa.

"We're stunned," Haneef's lawyer Stephen Keim told Reuters. "We can't understand how a man, who has been locked up in prison for nearly a month on groundless reasons, could continue to have his good name be smeared with this decision."

But his return home would not end the fight to clear his name, Keim said, adding that the legal team had submitted a court application to appeal against the immigration office's decision to revoke Haneef's work visa.

"With the visa cancelled, it could have serious downstream effects on his work and travel. It is of paramount interest for Haneef to have an unblemished record," he said.

Haneef had been charged with recklessly supporting terrorism by providing a relative in Britain -- his second cousin Sabeel Ahmed - with his mobile phone SIM card.

Prosecutors told an Australian court that Haneef's SIM card was found in the burning jeep in Glasgow, although prosecutors on Friday agreed the SIM card was found with Sabeel, as Haneef had told them all along.

Haneef, detained by Australian police on July 2 as he was about to leave Australia for India, remains under residential detention at a secret location in Brisbane, Queensland.