Melbourne: The Australian government should "take responsibility" and apologise to the "innocent" Indian doctor Mohammad Haneef, whose detention in connection with a failed UK terror plot was declared wrongful by an independent inquiry, the premier of Queensland state said on Monday.
Anna Bligh, the Premier of Queensland, where Haneef was working before being arrested last year, said it was the duty of the Kevin Rudd government to say sorry as "governments take responsibility for government activity," the APP agency said.
Bligh said the Rudd government should apologise, even though Haneef went through the ordeal under the previous John Howard government.
"Obviously that's a matter for the federal government, but I think when people are treated unfairly it's the reasonable thing to do," Bligh said.
"It would appear this is an innocent man who has been treated wrongly and when a wrong has been done I don't think there is any harm in making an apology for that," she was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Haneef said that he was hoping an independent inquiry into his case will prevent anyone else from suffering a similar fate and that his case would be the last such case.
"I hope the Australian Government as well as the police look through the report and make sure that no one suffers these kinds of things in the future," an ABC report quoted him as saying.
Haneef, who had earlier stated that an apology would be "very handy" said it would provide a "healing touch".
"I'm really not concerned about it. Indigenous people of Australia have waited more than 200 years now to hear an apology," he said.
"But look, it would be a healing touch, and it would be very nice to hear that," he added.
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