A judge on Monday ordered the release of Novak Djokovic from the detention center where he was placed, a victory for the tennis player who wants to enter Australia without being vaccinated against Covid-19, even though the Australian government has warned that he could still impose his expulsion.
Judge Anthony Kelly ended several days of legal battle by ordering the immediate release of the 34-year-old, detained since arriving in Australia to play the first Grand Slam of the year, at a migrant center in Melbourne.
Christopher Tran, a government lawyer, warned, however, that Canberra could still decide to expel Djokovic from the country, which would result in him being barred from entering Australia for three years.
Faced with a humiliating and high-profile defeat, the Australian government informed the judge, through Christopher Tran, that Immigration Minister Alex Hawke could use his executive powers to block Djokovic’s way.
The lawyers of “Djoko”, held for five days in a center for migrants in Melbourne, tried to convince the federal court that the Serbian champion had indeed contracted the Covid in December, which would exempt him from a compulsory vaccination to enter the hospital. territory.
“What more could this man have done?” “, Admitted during the hearing followed online by AFP the judge, who considered that Djokovic provided evidence, emanating from” a professor and an eminently qualified doctor “concerning his request for medical exemption.
The hearing opened late after a computer problem due to too many connections to attend its online retransmission, finally shared on YouTube in particular, despite a ban, by antivax.
– “Completely confused” –
According to the sportsman’s lawyers, the player was “completely confused” when he was heard for several hours on the night of January 5 to 6 at Melbourne airport. They argued in particular that he was deprived of means of communication with his entourage during his interrogation.
The Australian Open, where Djokovic aims to afford a 21st Grand Slam tournament that would place him at the top of tennis history ahead of his two historic rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, begins in seven days and his participation depended entirely on Mr. Kelly’s decision.
His lawyers say he tested positive for Covid-19 on December 16. However, he attended the next day in Belgrade, without a mask, a ceremony in honor of young Serbian players.
Djokovic, now mocked by the nickname “Novax”, was due to attend the proceedings from the former Park Hotel, a five-story building that accommodates around 32 migrants trapped in Australia’s immigration system, some of them for years.
Djokovic, who did not speak at the hearing, finally obtained permission from the court to follow Monday’s proceedings from another, undisclosed location, before being forced to return to the detention center in the outcome of the hearings.
According to his lawyers, his request to be transferred to a center where he could train for the Australian Open has gone unheeded.
Present at a rally in Belgrade, Djokovic’s mother, Dijana, for her part once again lambasted the “inhuman” conditions of her son’s detention.
“He is only entitled to one lunch and one dinner, and he has no normal window, he is looking at a wall,” she told regional television, TV N1.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said over the weekend that Serbia fully supports the champion and that she has had “constructive talks” with the Australian Foreign Minister.
“We made sure that he received gluten-free food, sports equipment, a laptop,” she told Serbian television Pink.
– Not vaccinated –
The Australian tennis federation had granted the player an exemption, on the grounds of his infection in December, to participate in the first Grand Slam of the season, after his request was approved by two independent medical panels, said his lawyers.
But on his arrival in Australia, the federal authorities had refused him entry, considering that his grounds for exemption did not meet the conditions for entry into the territory.
The Australian government insists that a recent infection only counts as an exemption for residents, not foreign nationals trying to enter the country.
Selected as “Djoko” after also having her visa canceled, Czech player Renata Voracova, a doubles specialist, left Australia on Saturday.
On Monday, Australian Federation boss Craig Tiley defended his organization against criticism accusing him of misleading players about entry requirements, saying the government had “refused” to verify the validity medical exemptions before the arrival of players.
While much of Australia has tightened health restrictions to fight a new wave linked to the Omicron variant, the state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, recorded 44,155 new cases on Sunday.
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