Still a bit of suspense. The fate of Novak Djokovic is now in the hands of the Australian Federal Court: it is she who will decide whether the number one in world tennis should be expelled from the country.
During an interim hearing in Melbourne on Sunday, the three judges of the Court heard the Australian government’s arguments for several hours on Sunday. In his conclusions, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke argued that Djokovic’s presence in the country “is likely to pose a health risk”. He says it encourages “anti-vaccination sentiment” and could deter Australians from getting their booster shots as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly across the country. The presence in Australia of the champion could even “lead to an upsurge in civil unrest”, added the minister. Although he described the risk that Djokovic himself infects Australians as “negligible”, the minister considered that his past “contempt” of health rules against Covid constitutes a bad example.
Sunday before the Court, the lawyers of “Djoko” qualified the detention of their client and his possible expulsion of “illogical”, “irrational” and “unreasonable”. The government “doesn’t know what Mr. Djokovic’s views are right now,” lawyer Nick Wood pleaded, saying his client has never publicly supported the anti-vaccination movement.
Government attorney Stephen Lloyd responded that the champion was not vaccinated nearly two years after the pandemic began and that he had repeatedly ignored health rules, including failing to comply. isolating when he knew he was infected was sufficient evidence of his position.
The decision of the three Federal Court judges will be virtually impossible for both the Australian government and Djokovic to challenge.
