Terror Suspect Freed, Departs Australia

An Indian doctor left Australia for India early Sunday after prosecutors dropped a charge linking him to the recent failed terrorist bombings in Britain.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Saturday Mohamed Haneef, 27, was free to leave the country following his release from jail Friday, but his work visa remained canceled.

Haneef, flanked by his cousin Imran Siddiqui and his lawyer Peter Russo, flew out of Brisbane Airport early Sunday on Thai Airways flight TG 992, scheduled to stop at Bangkok before arriving in Bangalore on Monday.

Russo told reporters his client was leaving Australia voluntarily and was not being deported.

"Mohamed is very homesick and is pining for his wife and child and he is anxious to get back and see his mother," Russo said.

Russo said his client would not give up his fight against Andrews' decision to revoke his work visa on character grounds, and would press ahead with a court appeal in August.

Haneef was arrested at the Brisbane airport on July 2 as he was about to fly to India to see his wife and newborn daughter.

Australia's chief prosecutor Damian Bugg said Friday evidence did not support the charge that Haneef provided reckless support to a terrorist organization when he gave his cell phone SIM card to a relative in Britain a year ago before he left for a hospital job in Australia.

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

Ahmed's brother, Kafeel Ahmed, is believed to have set himself ablaze after crashing an explosives-laden Jeep into Glasgow Airport and remains in hospital with critical burns.

Although a court hearing the charge against Haneef released him on bail, Andrews revoked his work visa based on confidential briefings by police, and he remained in jail.

Andrews said Saturday he would not reverse the decision to cancel the visa, despite mounting calls in Australia for the doctor to be allowed back to work.

The Gold Coast Hospital said Friday Haneef's job was waiting for him if he regains the visa.

Peter Beattie, premier of Queensland state where Haneef has lived and worked for almost a year, said the junior doctor should now be allowed to get on with his life.

"We have to be careful when dealing with potential terrorism threats that we don't leave the Australian way of life by the wayside," Beattie said Friday.

Haneef's wife, Firdaus Arshiya, said she was looking forward to her husband's return.