MELBOURNE, Australia — The world’s number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic, has been deported from Australia, departing on an Emirates flight to Dubai 10:39 p.m. local time.
The decision came after government ministers intervened to reverse a previous federal court decision which had allowed the Serbian player to compete in this year’s ATP Australia Open tournament, before losing a final legal hearing today over his right to enter the country with a valid COVID-19 vaccine exemption.
In the end, Australian officials justified their unilateral move not on the basis that Djokovic was any real public health threat, but rather because of government fears that an unvaccinated Djokovic might inspire other ‘anti-vaxxers’ in Australia to rebel against the government’s vaccine apartheid system, thus, he might pose a grave risk to ‘public law and order.’
Washington Post reports…