New Delhi: Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef will be treated as a "terrorist" while detained in a Queensland jail and subject to special conditions, including solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, an official was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.
This statement from Australia comes just hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern over the way the Gold Coast-based doctor was being treated by the Australian authorities.
Queensland Police and Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence said the conditions of his detention included no contact with other inmates, meaning Haneef would be alone in a cell for all but one hour a day, when he is allowed to exercise.
Haneef would also face a different regime to that of other prisoners, she said.
"A terrorist prisoner is required to be held apart from the mainstream prison population, so he will be held in a segregated environment, when he moves around the prison he will be accompanied by two prison officers," she was quoted by PTI as saying.
"Anyone who is charged under terrorist legislation is obviously seen as a greater threat to the good order of our society than other type of prisoners," she added.
Spence defended the high security around Haneef's transfer in an armoured police van on Wednesday. "You have to appreciate he is being treated as a terrorist, that's the charges against him at this point in time, so it is appropriate that when he is moved from one place to another that he is heavily guarded".
However, she did say that he would have access to his lawyer, Peter Russo, the prison visitors' scheme, and its chief inspector, should he wish to complain about his conditions.
He would also have access to television, literature and radio, but not to a computer. Haneef will also be allowed visits from an imam or Islamic leader, and access to prayer mats and halal meals.
Haneef -- charged in connection with last month's failed car bomb attacks in UK -- was transferred to Wolston Correctional Centre in a southern suburb of Brisbane on Wednesday morning.
He has filed an appeal against Australian government's decision to cancel his visa and keep him behind bars.
Haneef was charged with recklessly providing resources - amounting to a mobile phone SIM card - and supporting terrorism. However, the magistrate felt that the charges were not very serious and granted him bail, saying it was an exceptional circumstance.
Meanwhile, Australian terror laws -- which do not allow bail or parole for terrorism offences -- came under severe criticism when Haneef's work visa was revoked on suspicion that he had links to terrorists and he was detained again after being granted bail.
Back in India, Australia has now also revoked the visa of Haneef's wife, Firdous Arshiya.
"We received a communication from the Australian authorities last night that her visa has been cancelled," Arshiya's father Ashwaq told PTI.
"I really do not care if my visa has been cancelled. My only concern is that my husband should return safely with all charges cleared. Right now, I am not interested in going to Australia," she said.
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