A Federal Court hearing has been scheduled for Sunday, a day
before the men’s No. 1-ranked tennis player and nine-time Australian Open
champion was due to begin his title defense at the first Grand Slam tennis
tournament of the year.
Djokovic and his lawyers had a morning meeting with
immigration officials and, by mid-afternoon, Australian media reported the
tennis star was taken back into detention. Television footage showed the
34-year-old Serb wearing a face mask as he sat in a vehicle near an immigration
detention hotel.
He spent four nights confined to a hotel near downtown
Melbourne before being released last Monday when he won a court challenge on
procedural grounds against his first visa cancellation.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke on Friday blocked the visa,
which was originally revoked when he landed at a Melbourne airport on Jan. 5.
Deportation from Australia can lead to a three-year ban on
returning to the country, although that may be waived, depending on the
circumstances.
Djokovic has acknowledged that his travel declaration was
incorrect because it failed to indicate that he’d been in multiple countries in
the two-week period before his arrival in Australia.
But that wasn’t why Hawke decided that deporting Djokovic
was in the public interest.
Lawyers for Djokovic filed documents in court that revealed
Hawke had stated that the tennis star “is perceived by some as a talisman of a
community of anti-vaccination sentiment.”
Australia has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates
in the world.
But the minister said Djokovic’s presence in Australia may
be a risk to the health and “good order” of the Australian public and “may be
counterproductive to efforts at vaccination by others in Australia.”
The Health Department advised that Djokovic was a “low” risk
of transmitting COVID-19 and a “very low” risk of transmitting the disease at
the Australian Open.”
The minister cited comments Djokovic made in April 2020 that
he was “opposed to vaccination” and had wouldn’t want to be forced by someone
to take a vaccine to compete.
Djokovic’s lawyers argued that the minister had cited no
evidence that Djokovic’s presence in Australia may “foster anti-vaccination
sentiment.”
Hundreds of activists held a peaceful rally outside the
Melbourne Park complex that hosts the Australian Open, and planned another for
Monday.
“We’re at Rod Laver Arena to support Novak. He’s won nine
(Australian Open) titles here. Hopefully this will be No. 10 -- if he can get
out of quarantine and get his visa back,” Harrison McLean, one of the rally
organizers, said. “We’re a peaceful movement, here to raise awareness and
support everyone’s freedom of choice.”
On Saturday, Federal Chief Justice James Allsop announced
that he would hear the case with Justices David O’Callaghan and Anthony
Besanko.
The decision for three judges to hear the appeal instead of
a single judge elevates the importance of the case from the judiciary’s
perspective and means any verdict would be less likely to be appealed.
Sydney-based immigration lawyer Simon Jeans said he was
surprised that Djokovic was no longer being deported because his COVID-19
infection last month did not exempt him from Australia’s strict rules that foreign
visitors are vaccinated unless there are sound medical reasons that they can’t
be.
“The unanswered question is if Djokovic was such a threat to
good order, why grant him a visa” in November,” Jeans asked. “This is a
high-risk strategy. It’s going to be much harder for the minister to convince
three judges that what he did was in the public interest.”
Djokovic, who has won the last three Australian Open titles,
will be allowed out of hotel detention on Sunday to visit his lawyers’ offices
for the video court hearing.
He is seeking a record 21st Grand Slam singles title. He is
currently tied with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer for the most by a man in
history.
In a post on social media Wednesday that constituted his
most extensive public comments yet on the episode, Djokovic blamed his agent
for checking the wrong box on his travel document, calling it “a human error
and certainly not deliberate.”
In that same post, Djokovic said he went ahead with an
interview and a photo shoot with a French newspaper in Serbia despite knowing
he’d tested positive for COVID-19. Djokovic has been attempting to use what he
says was a positive test taken on Dec. 16 to justify a medical exemption that
would allow him to avoid the vaccine requirement on the grounds that he already
had COVID-19.
In canceling Djokovic’ visa, Hawke said Prime Minister Scott
Morrison’s government “is firmly committed to protecting Australia’s borders,
particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The episode has touched a nerve in Australia, and
particularly in Victoria state, where locals went through more than 260 days of
lockdowns during the worst of the pandemic.
Australia faces a massive surge in virus cases driven by the
highly transmissible omicron variant. On Friday, the nation reported 130,000
new cases, including nearly 35,000 in Victoria state. Although many infected
people aren’t getting as sick as they did in previous outbreaks, the surge is
still putting severe strain on the health system and disrupting supply chains.
Djokovic’s supporters in Serbia have been dismayed by the
visa cancellations. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the Australian
government of “harassing” and “maltreating” Djokovic and asked whether
Morrison’s government is just trying to score political points ahead of upcoming
elections.
“Why didn’t you return him back right away, or tell him it
was impossible to get a visa?” Vucic asked the Australian authorities in a
social media address. “Why are you harassing him and why are you maltreating
not only him, but his family and an entire nation that is free and proud.”
Everyone at the Australian Open is required to be
vaccinated.
According to Grand Slam rules, if Djokovic is forced to pull
out of the tournament before the order of play for Day 1 is announced, No. 5
seed Andrey Rublev would move into Djokovic’s spot in the bracket.
If Djokovic withdraws from the tournament after Monday’s
schedule is released, he would be replaced in the field by what’s known as a
“lucky loser” — a player who loses in the qualifying tournament but gets into
the main draw because of another player’s exit before competition has started.-AP
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