Judge rejects bid to delay Djokovic visa appeal, while refugee activists gather

 The Australian government has failed in a bid to delay Novak Djokovic’s visa hearing until after the Australian Open draw is finalised.

Judge Anthony Kelly rejected, in an order published on Sunday, the submission by home affairs minister Karen Andrews on Saturday to push Monday’s hearing to Wednesday.

But the judge left the government with the option of making another application to delay on Monday.

World number one Djokovic has been detained at an immigration facility in Melbourne since Thursday morning after his visa was cancelled following scrutiny of the medical exemption he had secured to travel to the first tennis major of the year. 

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.