The tennis star has revealed what happened when he was questioned in a ‘small room’ about his visa.
Top tennis star Novak Djokovic was interrogated in a “small room” by an official who left multiple times to speak to his superiors, according to court documents.
The player successfully overturned his visa cancellation in the Federal Circuit Court on Monday, with the judge ruling he be released from immigration detention at Melbourne’s Park Hotel immediately.
The World No. 1 was quizzed by an official shortly after arriving in the city from Dubai after midnight on January 6, according to documents.
Djokovic claims in an affidavit published on Monday evening he was questioned in a small room at the airport and it was recorded throughout the night but not during “every conversation”.
He told the official he was infected with Covid twice – most recently in December – and handed the official his positive test results.
“I gave these additional documents to him because I understood that the main reason why I was allowed to travel to Australia under a medical exemption was because I had been infected with Covid in the last 6 months,” Djokovic wrote in his affidavit.
“That is why I wanted him to see the Covid-PCR test results, but I recall he did not appear to be very interested in these documents.”
The Serbian tennis star also said in the affidavit the interview was interrupted on “six to eight” occasions because the official said “he needed to (go) outside to speak to his supervisors about my documents”.
He was also told stop using his phone when he tried to communicate with his agent and after 90 minutes was allowed to rest on a sofa in a corridor, according to the affidavit.
The champ was later allowed to rest on a bed and said he was “mentally starting to slow down”, and had headphones on when the official returned and asked him what they should do.
“I didn’t know what to do, and said I preferred to have more time and I didn’t know what more they expected me to tell them,” Djokovic said in his affidavit.
“They presented to me that it was better for me if the interview was done right away; they said that I can give my comments on the Notice (to cancel his visa) and then they can make a decision, and then my legal team can know what to do, because right now they can’t do anything,” the statement reads.
“I felt like I had no choice, but I had to participate in the interview.”
The government conceded the decision to go ahead with interviewing Djokovic and cancel the visa was “unreasonable in the circumstances”, the court was told on Monday afternoon.
But in a shocking twist, government lawyer Christopher Tran flagged the immigration minister could consider whether to exercise “the personal power of cancellation”.
This could mean the player could be barred from the country for three years.
Originally published as Novak Djokovic reveals what happened during his visa interrogation
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