Judge Anthony Kelly ended several days of legal battle and ordered the player’s immediate release.
A judge on Monday ordered the release of Novak Djokovic from his detention center, a victory for the tennis player who wants to enter Australia without being vaccinated against covid-19, although the Australian government warned that he could still force his expulsion.
Judge Anthony Kelly put an end to several days of legal battle and ordered the immediate release of the 34-year-old player who, since he arrived in Australia to play the first Grand Slam of the year, was being held in a Melbourne migrant center
Christopher Tran, a government lawyer, warned that the executive branch could still decide to expel Djokovic from the country, which would mean a three-year ban from entering Australia.
The Australian government, which suffered a high-profile legal defeat, informed the judge, through Christopher Tran, that Immigration Minister Alex Hawke could still use his executive powers to block Djokovic’s entry.
Lawyers for “Djoko”, who has been held in a Melbourne migrant center for five days, were trying to convince the federal court that the Serbian had contracted the covid in December, which would exempt him from the mandatory vaccination to enter the country.
“What else could this man have done?” Acknowledged the judge at the hearing, which AFP followed online, stating that Djokovic had provided evidence from “a professor and an eminently qualified doctor” on his request for medical exemption.
The hearing began late after a computer failure due to the excess of connections to see it online and was finally shared on YouTube by anti-vaccine activists although it was prohibited.
“Completely confused”
According to the athlete’s lawyers, the player was “completely confused” when he was questioned for several hours on the night of January 5-6 at Melbourne airport.
They argued that he was deprived of the means to communicate with his surroundings during interrogation.
The Australian Open, in which Djokovic aspires to a 21st Grand Slam title that would place him at the top of tennis history ahead of his two great rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, begins in seven days and his participation it was totally up to Judge Kelly’s decision.
His lawyers say that he tested positive for covid-19 on December 16. However, the next day he attended a ceremony in Belgrade, without a mask, to honor the young Serbian players.
Djokovic, now nicknamed “Novax,” was scheduled to attend the hearing from his detention center, located in what was once the Park Hotel, a five-story building that houses some 32 immigrants trapped in the Australian legal system, some of them for years.
Djokovic, who did not intervene at the hearing, finally received permission from the court to view Monday’s hearing from another undisclosed location. After the hearings, he had to return to the detention center.
His lawyers indicated that they denied his request to be transferred to a center where he could train.
Djokovic’s mother, Dijana, who attended a demonstration in support of her son in Belgrade, again condemned the “inhumane” conditions in which he finds himself.
“He only gets lunch and dinner and he doesn’t have a normal window, he just looks at a wall,” he told regional television channel TV N1.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said this weekend that Serbia fully supported the player and had held “constructive talks” with the Australian Foreign Minister.
“We have ensured that he receives gluten-free food, sports equipment and a laptop,” he told the Serbian television channel Pink.
Unvaccinated
Following his infection in December, the Australian tennis federation had granted Djokovic an exemption from participating in the first Grand Slam of the season. His application had been approved by two independent medical panels, his attorneys said.
But when he arrived in Australia, he was denied entry by federal authorities, claiming that his exemption grounds did not meet the requirements.
The Australian government claims that a recent infection only counts as an exemption for residents, not foreigners trying to enter the country.
Czech doubles player Renata Voracova left Australia on Saturday after her visa was also canceled.
The head of the Australian federation, Craig Tiley, defended his organization on Monday against criticism of having misinformed players about the requirements to enter the country and said the government had “refused” to check the validity of the rules. medical exemptions before the arrival of the tennis players.
Much of Australia strengthened sanitary restrictions to combat contaminations by the omicron variant of the coronavirus and the state of Victoria, whose capital is Melbourne, registered 44,155 new cases on Sunday. (I)
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