July 27, 2007 - Damian Bugg, the commonwealth director of public prosecutions, has announced that charges against the Indian doctor, Mohamed Haneef, who was held in Australia in connection with the failed bomb plots in Glasgow and London, are dropped.

Haneef, 27, has been in custody since July 2 but was only charged on July 14, sparking criticism by civil rights groups at the length of his detention.

An Australian magistrate had ordered he be released on bail last week, but the government blocked the move by revoking his visa, meaning he had to remain in a detention centre.

He had been accused of "providing support to a terrorist organisation", because he allegedly left his SIM card with his second cousin, one of those linked to the UK attacks.

Damian Bugg, the commonwealth director of public prosecutions, said today that the charge was being withdrawn because he was satisfied "there was no reasonable prospect of conviction."

"On my view of the matter a mistake has been made," he added, in apparent recognition of complaints about the police's lack of evidence against the doctor.

He will now be released from custody and allowed to return to his Queensland home, although he will still be "formally in detention" under the immigration authorities, according to Kevin Andrews, the immigration minister.

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