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© Reuters. Police personnel watch pro-refugee protestors rally outdoors the Park Lodge, the place Serbian tennis participant Novak Djokovic is believed to be held whereas he stays, in Melbourne, Australia, January 10, 2022. REUTERS/Sandra Sanders
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By Sonali Paul and Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) -The decide listening to Novak Djokovic’s authorized problem to the Australian authorities’s choice to revoke the star tennis participant’s entry visa raised issues on Monday in regards to the Serbian’s therapy after he was detained on arrival.
Decide Anthony Kelly mentioned it appeared Djokovic had obtained the required medical exemption from COVID-19 vaccination earlier than he travelled to Melbourne for the Australian Open tennis event and introduced proof of that when he landed on Wednesday night.
“The purpose that I’m considerably agitated about is what extra may this man have finished?” Kelly mentioned as Djokovic’s legal professionals outlined their case difficult the federal government’s choice to revoke his visa.
Djokovic’s plight has been intently adopted around the globe, creating political tensions between Belgrade and Canberra and sparking heated debate over nationwide vaccination mandates.
In danger is the world primary’s shot at successful a report twenty first Grand Slam on the Australian Open, the yr’s first main, which begins in Melbourne on Jan. 17.
Djokovic, 34, has been held in an immigration detention resort alongside long-term asylum seeker detainees since Thursday. He was permitted to attend his legal professionals’ chambers for the digital hearings however has not been seen in public since he arrived in Australia.
His legal professionals argue {that a} current COVID-19 an infection certified Djokovic for the medical exemption https://www.reuters.com/life-style/sports activities/djokovic-will-defend-australian-open-title-after-exemption-vaccination-2022-01-04 from a requirement for non-Australian residents getting into the nation to be double vaccinated.
The Australian authorities, nonetheless, says non-citizens had no proper of assured entry to Australia, questioned his claimed exemption and careworn that even Djokovic wins the court docket motion, it reserved the best to detain him once more and take away him from the nation.
Exchanges between Kelly and Djokovic’s lawyer Nicholas Wooden revealed officers made the participant change off his cellphone from midnight to round 7.42 a.m. native time, when the choice to cancel his visa was made.
Officers additionally reneged on an settlement to provide Djokovic till 8.30 a.m. to talk to event organiser Tennis Australia and legal professionals, the decide mentioned. Djokovic was as a substitute woken up by officers at round 6.00 a.m. after a quick relaxation and pressured to reply “as a result of it was higher for him in the event that they made the choice straight away”, in keeping with his lawyer.
Wooden mentioned Djokovic had offered proof to assist his declare for exemption each earlier than boarding his flight and on arrival, regardless of not being required to take action.
Authorities legal professionals are resulting from current their case in a while Monday.
“LIVING LIKE AN ANIMAL”
A gaggle of round 50 supporters gathered outdoors the Federal Circuit and Household Courtroom on Monday, though the listening to was held nearly due to the Omicron outbreak in Australia.
Entry to the day’s hearings was tormented by technical points that repeatedly crashed the general public live-stream.
Lots of the supporters outdoors court docket, some waving the Serbian flag, held arms and sang as they danced in a circle.
“He has been residing like an animal in a human zoo,” mentioned one supporter, Petar Nikolic. “What is going on right here is unAustralian. It’s politics and undoubtedly racist.”
In Belgrade, Djokovic’s father addressed a small protest in entrance of Serbia’s parliament constructing on Sunday, additionally accusing officers of treating his son, and all Serbians, like animals.
Nevertheless, fashionable opinion in Australia, the place greater than 90% of the grownup inhabitants is absolutely vaccinated, has been largely in opposition to the tennis participant, notably in Melbourne, which skilled the world’s longest cumulative lockdown.
The nation’s COVID-19 circumstances surpassed 1 million https://www.reuters.com/enterprise/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/australia-covid-19-infections-hit-1-million-omicron-drives-record-surge-2022-01-09 on Monday, with greater than half of them recorded previously week, driving up hospitalisation numbers and placing a pressure on provide chains.
TESTED POSITIVE
The saga kicked off when Djokovic posted a photograph of himself leaning on his baggage on Instagram final Tuesday, telling the world he was headed to Australia to compete within the Open with a vaccination exemption.
A protracted-term vocal opponent of necessary vaccination, Djokovic had by no means revealed his vaccination standing however court docket paperwork confirmed he has not been inoculated.
French newspaper L’Equipe printed {a photograph} of Djokovic taken when he was named the each day’s Champion of Champions within the days after he mentioned in a court docket submitting he had examined constructive for coronavirus, Dec. 16.
Different images printed on social media confirmed him showing at capabilities in Serbia on dates quickly after that check.
It was not clear if Djokovic knew of his constructive check on the time of the occasions proven within the footage.
Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley mentioned https://www.reuters.com/life-style/sports activities/australian-open-chief-says-conflicting-changing-advice-led-djokovic-fiasco-2022-01-09 in his first media interview because the furore started that his organisation had spoken with federal and state officers for months to make sure the protected passage of gamers.
Czech participant Renata Voracova https://www.reuters.com/life-style/sports activities/tennis-player-voracova-left-australia-after-visa-issues-czech-foreign-ministry-2022-01-08, who was detained in the identical detention resort as Djokovic and had her visa revoked after points along with her vaccine exemption, left the nation with out difficult her standing, the Czech International Ministry mentioned.
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