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The Serbian tennis player was arrested again after surrendering to the border authorities, as a judge from the oceanic country had ruled. The Federal Court of the nation took up the player’s case and the hearing on his situation in the country is expected to take place on Sunday morning.
Novak Djokovic is once again in the hands of the Australian Justice. The player was detained after attending an appointment with border officials and will have to wait again under surveillance until a new hearing in which a court in the country will determine whether to reinstate his visa or whether he will finally be deported.
The player had to attend the appointment with the authorities at 8:00 am, as dictated by Judge Anthony Kelly on Friday night. For its part, the Federal Court of Australia indicated this January 15 at 10:15 (local time) that it was taking charge of the case, although it is still unknown whether it will immediately address the defense appeal.
According to information released by the Reuters news agency, the Federal Court would have set the hearing to decide on the situation of the tennis player for the morning of Sunday, January 16.
The tennis player’s team and many of his followers hope that the process will be completed before the opening date of the Australian Open, on January 17 and that it will last until the 30th of this month. If he played, Djokovic would compete for his tenth victory in the tournament and, if he obtained it, he would become the first tennis player in history to win 21 Grand Slams.
Cancellation for the second time of Djokovic’s visa
After several days of ups and downs in a case that has gone around the world, Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke made the decision to cancel Djokovic’s visa again, considering that the tennis player, who has refused to be vaccinated against Covid -19, you cannot access the country, something that is prohibited for non-citizens and non-residents.
“Today I have exercised my power under section 133C(3) of the Immigration Act to cancel the visa of Mr. Novak Djokovic based on health and law enforcement reasons as being in the public interest,” the senior official said in a statement, in which he claimed to have weighed “carefully” the information in the case.
Novak Djokovic, who is considered the number 1 tennis player in the world, arrived on January 5 in the Australian city of Melbourne with a medical exemption to enter the country without being vaccinated, a document that the Government of the state of Victoria had granted him.
This exemption was based on the fact that the tennis player had contracted and recovered from Covid-19 in December. However, upon arrival, the national authorities, in charge of the borders, informed him that this was not a reason to enter the country, according to national regulations against the pandemic, and that same night they canceled his visa.
After spending several days detained in a hotel where several asylum seekers survive – some of whom have spent up to 8 years in this facility – the court presided over by Judge Kelly considered that the immigration officers who detained him had been “unreasonable ” and ordered his release, after also indicating that he had not been treated “fairly”.
Djokovic’s behavior during his contagion, in question
But a new turn in the tennis player’s situation occurred after several scandals were unleashed due to his behavior during his contagion in December and it was revealed that Djokovic had not isolated himself during that time and that he had also done a photo session and An interview with a French newspaper.
Something that surely did not help in Minister Hawke’s decision was that it was shown that Djokovic had lied on his entry form to the country, by ensuring that he had not made any trips 14 days before entering Australia. Then it was verified that he had been in Spain and Serbia and the tennis player assured that it had been “a human error” by a member of his staff.
His defense believes that Hawke’s decision is due in part to the government’s belief that Djokovik’s presence in the country could fuel anti-vaccine sentiment among citizens at a time when the nation is experiencing record numbers of infections.
Tension hangs over Djokovic, two days before the start of the Australian Open.
With EFE and Reuters
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