Hicks Could Spend Seven Years In Guantanamo, Says Mori
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday August 14, 2006
THE Australian inmate of Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks, could spend up to seven years in the notorious United States military prison before he goes to trial, his lawyer, Major Michael Mori, said last night.
Major Mori, a US Marine, said it was inevitable that lawyers for accused terrorists in the Cuban prison camp would appeal against the new military commission being set up to try Hicks."All it will lead to is another challenge in the Federal Court and another 2 1/2 years for David [in Guantanamo]," he said."He's going to be there until the Australian Government says he's ready to go home."The first military commission was quashed by the US Supreme Court this year. It recommended that a new military tribunal system be set up that complied with the Geneva Conventions and other established legal principles. With the end of the first commission, Hicks is in a legal limbo. The three charges against Hicks have lapsed and Major Mori believes that two of those charges - terrorist conspiracy and aiding the enemy - will have to be dropped in any case.The remaining charge of attempted murder was absurd, he added. Major Mori said he could not understand why the Australian Government allowed Hicks to stay in Guantanamo Bay and be tried by a military commission when the US would not allow its own citizens to be held and tried in such conditions.The Australian Government wants Hicks's trial to be sorted out by November, but the US Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, has said the US maintained the power to hold Hicks and other "enemy combatants" in detention indefinitely. Major Mori is in Australia and will brief MPs in Canberra this week.
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald