by Sonali Paul and Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic returned to training lessons in Melbourne on Monday, shortly after being released, by court order, from the detention center he had been in since Thursday after entering Australia without being vaccinated against COVID-19, a decision called “the biggest victory of his life” by his family.
The Serbian player, world number one tennis player, who suggested contamination with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on December 16 as an explanation for not having a valid vaccination status, expressed on Twitter his hope to participate in the ‘Australian Open, which opens on January 17 and where he aims for a 21st Grand Slam title, which would set a record to overtake Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
“I am happy and grateful that the judge rejected my visa cancellation. Despite everything that has happened, I want to stay and try to play in the Australian Open. I remain focused on (this goal),” he said. he said.
Photographed in the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne a few hours after this court ruling in his favor, Novak Djokovic is not guaranteed to be able to participate in the tournament, the Australian Minister for Immigration, Alex Hawke, now considering canceling his visa, said a spokesperson for the minister.
Under Australian law, the cancellation of the player’s visa remains a prerogative of the minister, the spokesperson said. “The minister is currently examining the matter and the procedure is continuing,” he said.
Judge Anthony Kelly ruled that the government’s earlier decision to cancel the Serbian tennis player’s visa was “unreasonable” and ordered the release of the world number one within 30 minutes as well as the return of his passport.
He ruled that the Australian authorities had not given sufficient time for Novak Djokovic to speak with the organizers of the Australian Open and with his lawyers and to provide them with a full response after being informed of the plan to cancel. his visa.
“THE GREATEST VICTORY OF HER LIFE”
“It is the biggest victory of his life,” reacted his father during a press conference in Belgrade, while the mother of the Serbian player accused the Australian authorities of having “tortured an innocent”.
The press conference came to an abrupt end when a reporter asked the family why, if he knew he was positive for COVID-19 on December 16, as a PCR test result produced in Australian court seems to show, Novak Djokovic had participated in the following days in public events without masks or social distancing measures.
In Melbourne, Judge Anthony Kelly did not rule on the question of the validity or otherwise of the exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine which Novak Djokovic said he benefited from due to contamination by the SARS-CoV coronavirus -2 occurred in the previous six months.
The Australian government has challenged this medical exemption to the double vaccination required to enter the territory, stressing that foreign nationals were in no way guaranteed to be able to enter Australia.
According to Judge Anthony Kelly, Novak Djokovic had yet claimed and obtained this vaccine exemption after being contaminated last month by the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 and had presented the corresponding evidence before landing in Melbourne on Wednesday evening.
“What more could he have done?” Observed the judge.
The vaccination exemption of the Serbian player – now sometimes nicknamed “Novax” – has been very badly received in Australia, in particular in Melbourne, the city the longest confined in the world, in cumulative duration, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
POLEMICS IN AUSTRALIA
More than 90% of Australia’s adult population has received two injections of the COVID-19 vaccine and the cumulative number of infections since the start of the epidemic crossed the threshold of one million in Australia on Monday, more than half of which were recorded last week.
Hit like many countries by a new epidemic wave fueled by the Omicron variant, Australia is facing a surge in hospitalizations, with a screening system totally overwhelmed and tensions on supply chains.
The controversy, which has fueled diplomatic tensions between Canberra and Belgrade, has also stirred the local political sphere.
Former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accused the center-right government coalition led by Scott Morrison of being the source of this mess.
“It’s total incompetence! If they really didn’t want him, why the hell did you give him a visa?” Said Kevin Rudd, accusing the government of orchestrating this controversy as “a huge strategy of diversion “in the face of the impossibility for Australians to be tested.
Judge Anthony Kelly has also been tough on the Australian federal government. He acceded to the request of Novak Djokovic’s lawyers, who pleaded that “his personal and professional reputation, as well as his economic interests, were likely to be directly affected” by the cancellation of his visa, to impose on authorities to pay the procedural costs advanced by the player.
The magistrate also warned that a revocation of Novak Djokovic’s visa by the government, which would bar the 34-year-old from entering Australia for three years, risked fueling tensions rather than easing them.
(Report Sonali Paul and Ian Ransom, with Zoran Milosavljevic in Belgrade, French version Myriam Rivet, Matthieu Protard and Tangi Salaün, edited by Blandine Hénault)