An Indian doctor linked to the failed bombings in Glasgow and London last month was charged yesterday by Australian police with providing support to a terrorist organisation.

Mohammed Haneef, 27, is due to appear today before the Brisbane Magistrates’ Court, southeastern Queensland. The charges against him carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Dr Haneef was detained 12 days ago after checking in at Brisbane airport to board a flight to Bangalore. Queensland police dropped a request to extend his period of detention without charge, forcing investigators either to charge or release him.

Dr Haneef had been working in a hospital on the Gold Coast in Queensland since arriving in Australia from Britain last year. Sources at the hospital had described him as a “model doctor” with no apparent extremist ideology.

Who are the terror suspects?

Eight suspects have been held by anti-terror police investigating the failed car bomb attacks in Glasgow and London

Multimedia

• In Pictures: UK terror attacks

BACKGROUND

• Biting back at terror suspects

• MI5 asked to check foreign medical workers

• Search for the thread linking bomb suspects

• Mobile phones may have led police to arrests

He was reportedly detained after British police found his mobile phone SIM card in the possession of one of the suspects held in Britain over the terror attacks.

Dr Haneef is a cousin of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, two of the men held in Britain over the attacks, and is thought to have lived with them for a year in Liverpool. He was the first suspect to be detained without charge under Australian anti-terror laws. Human rights campaigners had called for his release.

Despite a widespread investigation into vast amounts of computer data, phone records and other material seized as evidence, Australian newspapers were still reporting yesterday that police had found no direct evidence implicating him in any plot.

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