'It's in the public interest': Australian Immigration Minister revokes Djokovic's visa

The scandal with Novak Djokovic on Friday received a new round of development.

Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has revoked the visa of the first racket of the world. 

“Today, I exercised my powers under section 133C(3) of the Migration Act to revoke Novak Djokovic's visa for health and safety reasons, as it is in the public interest. In making this decision, I have carefully considered the information provided to me by the Home Office, the Australian Border Force and Mr. Djokovic. The Morrison Government is firmly committed to protecting Australia's borders, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic."

The basis for the annulment of Djokovic's visa was the many inconsistencies in his documents. First, Novak provided incorrect information about the places of his stay in the application for a visa to Australia, explaining the errors as "human error". And then the German publication Spiegel found that the Serb's positive PCR test data was entered into the national database with a delay of 10 days - on December 26th. In addition, a positive result was registered under the number 7371999, and a negative result of December 22 - under the number 7320919. Thus, the analysis, which was supposedly passed earlier, for some reason was entered into the system later. This may be due to bureaucratic confusion or, nevertheless, falsification of data in order to obtain a medical exemption from vaccination in Australia.

It is possible that Hawke's decision, which he took four days, was influenced, among other things, by public opinion.

Earlier, the Mirror published a study by NewsCorp, according to which 83% of Australians supported the deportation of Djokovic.

60 thousand people took part in the survey. 

Lawyers of the first racket of the world immediately filed an appeal against the minister's decision in court.

Representatives of the Serb tried to speed up the process as much as possible.

The team of the 20-time Grand Slam winner managed to ensure that the preliminary hearing took place on the same day at 20:45 local time and was broadcast online on the YouTube channel of the Federal District Court.

The case was returned to Anthony Kelly, who heard Novak's lawsuit for the first time on Monday.

However, after an hour of discussion, no final decision was made.

Kelly took the papers to Federal Court.

In the morning, Djokovic is due to visit the Ministry of Immigration for questioning.

After that, he will be under the supervision of border guards in the offices of his lawyers.

The next hearing is scheduled for Sunday.

If the Serb is nevertheless deported, he will not be able to obtain a visa to Australia for three years.

Due to the ongoing proceedings in the tennis player's case, it is still unclear what the Australian Open men's grid will be like.

On Thursday, the organizers waited until the last decision of the authorities, but in the end they still held a draw, according to which Djokovic became the first racket of the tournament.

According to the rules of the "Grand Slam", now there can be no more reseeding, and two scenarios are being considered.

If Novak is removed from the competition before the schedule of the first day is published, the fifth number of the world ranking, Russian Andrey Rublev, will move to his place.

In the event that the trial is delayed, but Djokovic is still deported, the lucky loser will lead the grid. 

According to two-time Grand Slam winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the most correct decision for Djokovic now would be to get on a plane and leave Australia.

“The wisest decision now is for Novak to simply accept the decision of the Minister of Immigration, get on a plane and fly away (if there is such an option now)!

Otherwise, Djokovic's lawyers can do something irreparable with their re-appeal.

This is my subjective opinion, ”Kafelnikov wrote on his Twitter. 

The President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev explained the decision of the Minister of Immigration of Australia by the political struggle within the country.

“Their federation gave permission for Djokovic to compete.

And the authorities are running election campaigns, so they act this way on this issue.

As for sports circles, everyone wants to see him.

ATP does not intervene in the situation due to the fact that there are no questions for them.

The Australian Tennis Federation gave him the opportunity to play.

This means that non-sporting organizations interfere, ”Tarpishchev said in an interview with Sport-Express.

In turn, the Alliance of Australian Lawyers criticized Hawk for the decision to re-annul the visa of the first racket of the world.

“The broad powers given to the [Australian Immigration] Minister mean that political considerations are driving decisions that can have a major impact on people's lives. It is amazing that we allow one person to have such a level of unlimited control and power. The powers vested in the Minister of Immigration and our border officials have expanded over time without a corresponding increase in transparency or accountability. In many cases, ministerial decisions are not subject to appeal or any meaningful scrutiny. Most people don't have the resources that Djokovic has to hire a team of lawyers to defend him. This government's obsession with tight border policy, coupled with its arbitrary approach to visa cancellations and detentions, has led to disaster this week. More importantly,this has destroyed the lives of thousands of people for many years, ”the organization said in a statement, the text of which is quoted by the Guardian.