WWhile the world number one trained behind closed doors in the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne after four days in the forced deportation detention center, all the wheels in the administration in Canberra are running hot: because there top officials are brooding over whether there is a legally tenable reason, Novak Djokovic is still to be shown. The decision will be made on Wednesday at the earliest, according to the Immigration Department on the Australian afternoon.
Officials and government politicians feel cheated by the Serb: he obtained his release on Monday after a federal judge in Melbourne ruled that the tennis star had done everything humanly possible to make his unvaccinated entry for the Australian Open in accordance with the law. When reviewing the Serbian’s documents on Tuesday, the officials came across a statement that could be his undoing: The defending champion from Melbourne had on the digital entry form, which in Australia can be more than a dozen pages depending on its status, ticked that he had not been to a third country in the past 14 days. But is that true?
Djokovic’s entry documents are included in the court files.
:
Image: FAZ.NET
If not, Djokovic would have lied on the visa form – which is imprisonment for up to twelve months not only in Australia. To meet the Australian requirements, the Serb would have had to be in Spain since the very early morning of December 22nd. Because from there he flew on January 4th via Dubai to Melbourne.
It doesn’t take a long internet search to find pictures, videos and texts of and about him that show that he was in Belgrade over Christmas. Accordingly, he still played tennis on December 25th in his home country and was photographed with handball star Petar Djordjic from Benfica Lisbon, which was then sent around the world as a picture via Twitter. Djokovic’s lawyers have not yet commented on the allegations.
Regardless of that turn, Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke could continue to exercise his right to revoke the Serbian visa a second time. This would result in a three-year entry ban “down-under”. After the embarrassment of the Australian government, which was surprised by the judge’s decision on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison had telephoned Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić about the case that night.
The cracks have now reached the ruling coalition: Morrison’s party colleague, Liberal Senator Alex Antic, said on Tuesday: “The discrimination based on vaccination status is wrong and no one should receive special treatment. But in Novak’s case the court did, and it should apply. The world wants to see Novak play. “
After a first turn, Morrison was not impressed by the sporting aspects of the disaster and insisted that “rules remain rules”. The pressured Prime Minister of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, played the ball back to Morrison in a first press conference on Tuesday: It was not his state that pushed for unvaccinated players to arrive for the Australian Open. “It was pretty much the other way around,” he said, referring to the federal government. “This tournament is bigger than a single person.”
.
