“Qhat could this man have done more? The judge in charge of the legal hearing concerning the visa of Novak Djokovic seemed on Monday open to the arguments of the defense of the world number one who was denied the right to participate in the Australian Open for health reasons. Lawyers for Djoko, held for five days in a migrant center in Melbourne, were trying to convince the federal court that the 34-year-old had contracted the Covid in December, which would exempt him from a compulsory vaccination to enter the territory .
In a hearing that Agence France-Presse was able to follow online, federal judge Anthony Kelly appeared to be defending the 34-year-old, which does not, however, prejudge his final decision as lawyers for Australia must also present their arguments. “What more could this man have done?” Asked the judge. At the end of the hearing, he ordered the tennis player’s release. But the player is not yet completely out of the woods.
A risk of deportation remains
With the Australian government facing a humiliating and high-profile defeat, lawyer Christopher Tran has indicated that Immigration Minister Alex Hawke can still order Djokovic’s deportation. “I was told that (the minister) would examine the possibility of exercising a personal power to cancel,” he said. This would have the consequence of preventing him from entering Australia for three years.
Recognizing to be a little “nervous”, the magistrate considered that the Serbian provided evidence, emanating from “a professor and an eminently qualified doctor” concerning his request for medical exemption. The hearing was opened late after a computer problem caused by too many connections to attend its retransmission online. Antivaxes shared, despite a ban, the link to follow it by broadcasting it live on YouTube. The judge finally continued the hearing without a live public broadcast, before restricted access, from which Agence France-Presse was able to benefit, was granted.
Djokovic “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 21e grand slam tournament which 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 depends entirely on the decision of Anthony Kelly.
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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 obtained permission from the court to follow Monday’s proceedings from another, undisclosed location before being forced to return to the detention center after 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.
Australian federation boss Craig Tiley defended his organization on Monday against criticism accusing him of misleading players about entry requirements, saying the government had refused to verify the validity of the exemptions medical before the arrival of the 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.