One-time terrorist suspect Mohamed Haneef will not be interviewed by the inquiry into his bungled arrest and detention.
Justice John Clarke QC revealed yesterday he did not intend to speak to Dr Haneef and the Indian-born doctor was happy for the inquiry to rely on his legal team's comprehensive submission.
Mr Clarke said he intended to interview 13 more witnesses but his staff said he would meet the reporting deadline of the end of this month.
Yesterday, former attorney-general Philip Ruddock gave evidence behind closed doors to the Clarke inquiry.
Dr Haneef's Melbourne-based lawyer Rod Hodgson will write to Attorney-General Robert McClelland today calling for the inquiry to be given wider terms of reference.
Mr Hodgson said his client would be prepared to have the reporting date delayed if that meant broadening the inquiry into why the Australian Federal Police continued to refer to Dr Haneef as a suspect for 14 months after the charges against him were dropped.
In July last year, Dr Haneef was charged with supporting a terrorism organisation after his mobile phone SIM card was linked to the failed Glasgow Airport bombings in 2007.
The case collapsed and the charges were dropped a fortnight later, but former immigration minister Kevin Andrews had already cancelled Dr Haneef's work visa.
Dr Haneef, who had been working at the Gold Coast Hospital, has not returned to Australia for fear of being caught up in the AFP's investigation.
The AFP said late last Friday that Dr Haneef was no longer a ''person of interest'' in its inquiries.
The Federal Government declared its full support for AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty yesterday as he faced mounting pressure over the Haneef case.
Mr McClelland said people should not judge the commissioner's performance on just one investigation.
''If you look at, for instance, not only the area of counter-terrorism but also ... the drug seizures we've had, [they are] substantially as a result of the relationships that he has been able to establish with other agencies including customs but, more specifically, the international policing community,'' Mr McClelland said.
However, Mr Hodgson said serious questions remained over Mr Keelty's position.
''The AFP ignored our client's legal rights by not providing him with a lawyer when he asked,'' he said.
''Now the AFP is the only key agency not to have provided a public submission to the Clarke inquiry and then Mr Keelty's had the gall to say the media had no role to play in these matters which is code for, trust us, we're the AFP, butt out, we know best.
''Mr Keelty has allowed the AFP to unlawfully keep hidden five transcripts of interviews with our client.
''There has to be a question as to Mr Keelty's tenure and we hope the Clarke inquiry is given expanded terms of reference.''
Mr Hodgson said the AFP had used more than $8million of taxpayers money pursuing his client after the Director of Public Prosecutions, ASIO and the Queensland Police said Dr Haneef had no case to answer.
Mr Hodgson said the timing of the AFP statement last Friday was a cynical attempt to avoid scrutiny.
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