Novak Djokovic claims he received a letter from Australia’s immigration department days before his arrival in Melbourne saying he met the requirements for quarantine-free travel to Australia.
In Federal Circuit Court documents released on Saturday evening, the Serbian tennis star’s lawyers claimed he had received the correspondence from the Department of Home Affairs on January 1.
That letter stated Djokovic’s Australia Travel Declaration had been assessed and his responses “indicated that he met the requirements for a quarantine-free arrival into Australia where permitted by the jurisdiction of [his] arrival”.
Court documents state that Djokovic was granted a visa to enter Australia on November 18 and on December 30 received an exemption certificate from the chief medical officer of Tennis Australia.
Czech Renata Voracova became the second Australian Open participant to be held in detention, following that of men’s world number one Novak Djokovic, who awaits a detention hearing.
That exemption noted that he had tested positive for Covid using a PCR test on December 16 but had not had a fever or other symptoms in the preceding 72 hours.
“Thank you to my generous country for this rare gift! I’m humbled!!” he posted.
According to an Australian Open document seen by The Age, players had to present all the necessary documentation to have their vaccination exemption reviewed by an independent expert panel by December 10, 2021. This would have ruled the world No 1 ineligible to play in the tournament as he was yet to be diagnosed with Covid-19.
Djokovic is in detention at the Park Hotel in Carlton after the federal government cancelled his visa to attend the Australian Open tournament.
He launched a court challenge to that decision on Friday which is due to be heard on Monday.
The grand slam star, through his legal documents, claims to have three grounds for appeal against the cancellation of his visa.
In the documents he claims to have been denied fair process partly due to the nature of his interviews at Melbourne Airport where he says he was denied access to his legal team.
He will also argue the decision goes against the most recent advice from expert group ATAGI and failed to consider extenuating circumstances beyond Djokovic’s control.
Djokovic claims ATAGI’s exemption guidance clearly identifies a Covid-19 infection as a valid exemption to postpone vaccination for six months.
His legal team also argues government websites and documents, including the Australian Travel Declaration and the Australian Department of Health’s website, all point at ATAGI’s guidelines for medical contraindications to Covid-19 vaccines.
The court documents detail Djokovic’s experience at Melbourne Airport in the early hours of Thursday (local time).
They claim he was interviewed from 12.21am on Thursday morning until 12.52am and then told at about 4am that his visa was likely to be cancelled.
Djokovic was asked if he could provide any further explanation on his circumstances and he then requested to have until 8am to provide it so he could talk to his advisers.
The documents claim the Border Force official said: “That’s absolutely fine, I have spoken with my supervisors and they’re more than happy to allow you have to rest (sic).”
Another conversation was held about 6am, he claims, where he was told he could rest until 8.30am and Djokovic went to sleep.
He claims he was then woken a short time later and put under pressure to decide on whether to go along with the visa cancellation.
He claims he then relented and the visa was cancelled at 7.42am.
