NAccording to reports from the Australian media, tennis professional Novak Djokovic is allowed to leave the deportation hotel in Melbourne for the duration of the court hearing on his appeal. Judge Anthony Kelly decided on Monday (local time), it said. He should be brought to a location chosen by his lawyers.
According to BBC One of Djokovic’s lawyers, Nick Wood, explained that there was no explicit law in Australia that one could not enter the country without a corona vaccination. Judge Anthony Kelly agreed to this.
Wood went on to say that Djokovic had provided the border guards at the airport with extensive documentation for his medical exemption and that he had cooperated. The judge also agreed to this, said BBC reporters.
Novak Djokovic during his entry attempt on January 5th at the airport in Melbourne
What: AP
With a comment, Judge Anthony Kelly showed a slight tendency in the sense of the Serbs. Kelly interrupted the lawyers and listed what steps Djokovic had taken, according to his understanding, before he got on the plane to Melbourne and after he was stopped there by the officers. Kelly concluded his comment by asking, “What more could this man have done?”
During the hearing, Judge Kelly said a little later that Djokovic had been stuck at 4 a.m. with no opportunity to contact his lawyers or the Australian Tennis Association. Djokovic was “incommunicado”, that is, isolated and inaccessible.
His lawyers also affirmed that the conditions at the airport and the cooperation with the border guards were “unfair” and “intolerable”.
When a decision will be made is unclear
In the meantime, government representatives have also given their views. They rejected the allegations of Djokovic’s attorneys that they were unfair and disproportionately strict with the tennis star.
They also rejected the allegations of interpreting the law and immigration regulations differently against Djokovic.
The judge replied that this description was not necessarily accurate and referred to the hours that Djokovic had set at night by the border guards.
Multiple delays in the live stream due to high traffic
The court hearing had due to technical problems at the Live broadcast delayed. As the Australian newspaper “Herald Sun” reported online in its live blog, the homepage, on which the hearing from the Commonwealth Law Courts Building in Melbourne was to be broadcast to the public, collapsed due to the high number of hits.
About two hours after the start, the live stream was interrupted again and was no longer available for more than an hour. Judge Kelly had already pointed out in the fully online hearing that too many participants in the video conference could lead to a breakdown.
The 34-year-old world number one, who had repeatedly criticized corona vaccinations, landed in Melbourne on Wednesday evening after he said he had received an exemption from the organizers of the Australian Open for entry without proof of vaccination. However, the Australian border guards did not recognize this and withdrew his visa.
Lawyers want to argue with a positive corona test
Djokovic’s lawyers want to have the cancellation withdrawn. They argue that Djokovic’s application for a waiver was approved by two independent medical bodies. They cited a positive corona test of the Serbian player on December 16 as the reason for the approval. They criticized the fact that Djokovic was largely isolated for eight hours after arriving at Melbourne Airport and detained without any contact with his lawyers.
Djokovic has been staying in the “Park Hotel” since Thursday, a controversial facility where the authorities also detain migrants threatened with deportation. According to Djokovic’s lawyers, all requests to move him to another facility failed. According to Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, the Serbian government has now made sure that he “gets gluten-free food, exercise equipment and a laptop”.
The tennis star’s lawyers are urging the court to make a quick decision. They asked the judge to decide “at the earliest possible point in time” – without waiting for his legal arguments to be worked out. This could be published later. Judge Anthony Kelly has already made it clear that the judiciary will not allow itself to be rushed.
Meanwhile, Australia has more than a million corona infections, according to official data. The states of New South Wales and Victoria together report about 55,000 positive tests. This brings the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic to 1.03 million. Other states and territories will not be reporting their numbers until later this day.
The country was able to control the spread of the virus for nearly two years with the closure of national borders and lockdowns. After easing restrictions, Australia is currently battling an outbreak of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
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