The Novak Djokovic visa story rages on, and seems to take new twists turns every few hours. With each passing day the pressure mounts on both sides as we move closer towards the opening day of the tournament on January 17th.
The latest news from the affair is the Australian Federal Circuit Court’s ruled to overturn the decision to cancel Djokovic’s visa.
With that news confirmed, Djokovic left the immigration hotel where he'd spent the last week and decamped in the office of his lawyers in Melbourne.
This follows a turbulent week for Djokovic, from being granted a medical exemption to compete at the Australian Open before his visa was cancelled and he was detained by border control.
The decision to overturn the cancellation by Court Judge Anthony Kelly was based around the belief that Australia’s border control had not followed the correct procedure when questioning Djokovic.
Despite his victory to have the cancellation of his visa overturned, his situation is still in limbo, with the final decision of whether he will be allowed play seemingly in the hands of Australia’s Immigration Minister Alex Hawke.
A spokesperson for the Minister released the following statement earlier.
“Following today’s Federal Circuit and Family Court determination on a procedural ground, it remains within Immigration Minister Hawke’s discretion to consider cancelling Mr Djokovic’s visa under his personal power of cancellation within section 133C(3) of the Migration Act.
“The Minister is currently considering the matter and the process remains ongoing.”
Video’s have emerged of the crazy scenes from the Melbourne central business district that show Djokovic's fans jumping on a car they believed to contain the tennis player. Police then used pepper spray on the rowdy supporters.
Police pepper sprayed a group of fans after they blocked the path of a car they believed was carrying Djokovic
Fans were banging on the window, throwing bottles at the car and two people were jumping up and down on top of it @theage https://t.co/AdK3kmQmWr pic.twitter.com/vwyYrofJZg— Paul Sakkal (@paulsakkal) January 10, 2022
Extraordinary. And it’s turned violent.
Police pepper spraying Novak fans .. as they swamp a black Audi leaving the carpark, assuming it’s Novak. @9NewsMelb @9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/lhu7Zid4EX— Adam Hegarty (@ajhegarty9) January 10, 2022
Djokovic is due to speak to the media today through a video link via family press conference.
Another group of demonstrators were also present, and their presence shone a light on what is a side-story to the Djokovic case, but also a much more serious and important situation.
These protesters are there because of the asylum seekers who have been living in the same hotel where Djokovic was detained. While the tennis star has had to spend a few days there, some of these refugees have allegedly spent nine years in the hotel.
See Also: Sambo McNaughton Reveals 'Horrendous' Abuse Suffered Due To Speech Impediment
