DISTURBING TREATMENT OF AN INNOCENT MAN BY AUSTRALIAN POLICE

Cleared doctor's reputation 'destroyed'. Why was his identity released to the media on mere suspicion?

INDIAN doctor Mohammed Asif Ali is "mentally disturbed" after the intense federal police and media interest in his ultimately non-sinister links to last week's British terror plots, according to a colleague. Despite international attention on his plight, federal police have gagged the softly spoken accident and emergency doctor from talking to even his closest friends about the ordeal.

Dr Ali's first opportunity to vent his anger came shortly after 8pm on Wednesday when he sat down to dinner with a small group of Indian doctors from Gold Coast Hospital. Police took him to the restaurant after spiriting him away from his Southport unit in an unmarked car.

At dinner, Dr Ali told his friends he was "mentally disturbed" and did not know if he would be able to work again in Australia. He thought his reputation had been permanently destroyed here and in India. The other doctors urged him to remain at Gold Coast Hospital, where he has the support of about 15 Indian and other Muslim doctors. Gold Coast Health Services public affairs spokeswoman Zuleika Henderson said while Dr Ali was welcome to continue working at the hospital, his future was undecided.

A colleague said Dr Ali only spoke generally of the horror of his past few days, telling them federal police had warned him it he would be breaking the law if he told anyone what the police did or asked. Speaking outside Dr Ali's now vacant unit, former landlord Deborah Simpson said police said they would take him "somewhere safe, away from the media".

Report here



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