World tennis number one Novak Djokovic had just won his day in court and will be defending his Australian Open title.
After many breaks in court proceedings, Djokovic was declared victorious by Judge Anthony Kelly. Kelly ordered Novak be removed from immigration detention within half an hour of his decision and that the government pay the tennis star’s court costs.
During the day’s proceedings, Djokovic’s lawyers alleged that the visa cancellation notice that was given to the world number one was defective as per the ABC. Barristers Paul Holdenson, Nikola Dragojlovic, Nick Wood and Jim Hartley from Svensson Barristers then went on to explain that Novak had gone to considerable effort to get his visa documents organised before arriving in Australia.
The presiding judge Anthony Kelly then sought to clear up the timeline from the morning Djokovic landed in Australia and was promptly told to leave.
The topic of the hearing then turned to Djokovic’s medical exemption, a document that was supposedly assessed by two separate medical boards and stated that since Djokovic had caught COVID in the last six months, he no longer posed any great public health risk to the community.
This prompted Judge Kelly to ask the court “What more could this man have done?” with regards to Djokovic’s efforts to gain legitimate entry into Australia as per Guardian Australia.
“Here, a professor and an eminently qualified physician have produced and provided to the applicant a medical exemption,” he continued.
“Further to that, that medical exemption and the basis on which it was given was separately given by a further independent expert specialist panel established by the Victorian state government and that document was in the hands of the delegate.”
The Australian Open begins on January 17th and the world number one will be competing.
