Australia to seek Hicks’ return if Guantanamo trial delays continue

Agence France Presse

The Australian government has signalled for the first time that it would demand the return of its only citizen held at Guantanamo Bay if delays with his US military trial persisted.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock suggested in a newspaper interview that fresh charges and a new tribunal should be in place by November, or terror suspect David Hicks should be returned home.

“It should happen as quickly as possible,” Ruddock was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying.

“Were that not to be the case we would be seeking his return in the same way we did with Mamdouh Habib,” he said, referring to an Egyptian-born Australian who was freed last year after nearly four years in Guantanamo on suspicion of terrorist links.

Prime Minister John Howard’s conservative government has repeatedly refused to intervene on behalf of Hicks, who has been held at the US military camp for four and a half years.

Hicks was one of a handful of Guantanamo detainees scheduled to face a special military tribunal, which was scrapped in June when the US Supreme Court ruled the process would violate the Geneva Conventions and US military law.

Ruddock appeared to set a November deadline for the new trial to proceed.

“I would never benchmark myself but I do note that the United States has indicated that it wants to have the matters that Congress has to deal with resolved before it rises for the mid-term election, which suggests November,” he told the newspaper.

Howard, a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush, has come under sustained pressure from opposition parties, human rights groups and legal experts to intervene on Hicks’ behalf.

The former ranch-hand, or “jackeroo”, in the Australian outback allegedly fought alongside the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

The Muslim convert was charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy after allegedly training in Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

Critics have questioned why Howard’s government has left Hicks languishing in the US military camp, when Britain had secured the release of its nine citizens and condemned the tribunal process.

Ruddock’s comments mark the first time the government has openly discussed the possibility of Hicks returning to Australia without being tried. He would not face charges in Australia as stringent new anti-terrorism laws passed since Hicks’ detention cannot be used retrospectively.

Hicks’ Pentagon-appointed lawyer, Major Michael Mori, played down Ruddock’s comments.

“I guess I’m just a little pessimistic until there’s action,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

“Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of talk by the Australian government demanding a speedy process and a fair process but, unfortunately, they never seem to force that issue that a fair trial be used or that it occur quickly,” added Mori, who is in Australia to press the government to intervene on his client’s behalf.