Fed: Hicks could be charged early next year, says PM

AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-2006
Fed: Hicks could be charged early next year, says PM

By Steve Larkin

ADELAIDE, Dec 8 AAP - Judges and lawyers issued fresh calls for David Hicks to be brought
home as Prime Minister John Howard said he hoped the terror suspect will be charged by
US authorities early next year.

Victorian judges and lawyers today rallied in Melbourne in support of Hicks, who has
been detained by the US at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba since soon after he was captured with
Taliban forces in Afghanistan in late 2001.

But Mr Howard expressed disappointment at delays in the case of the the Adelaide-born
terror suspect, saying he hoped he would be charged under new rules by the US next year.

"I'm not happy about it having taken so long and we are on a very regular basis pressing
the Americans for a commitment that he be formally be charged under the new military commission,"

Mr Howard told Southern Cross Radio in Melbourne.

"We are very hopeful that there will be formal charges brought against him early in the new year.

"Five years is a long time and we want him tried under the new rules established after
the Supreme Court decision."

Hicks had previously pleaded not guilty before a US military tribunal to charges of
conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy.

But the charges were dropped after a US Supreme Court ruling in June, declaring illegal
the military tribunals set up to try Hicks and other Guantanamo Bay inmates.

Former Victorian attorney-general Jim Kennan was among 200 people rallying in support
of Hicks today.

"The loss of his liberty, is a loss of our liberty," Mr Kennan said.

"I don't think there's been a period since the 1950s and the McCarthyist era when we've
seen such a sustained attack and disdain on fundamental notions of justice," he said.

"All of us have a responsibility to make our views known, and to mobilise what I think
is the ordinary decency of Australians."

On Wednesday, Hicks' lawyers were granted an urgent hearing in the Federal Court amid
hopes he can be brought home before Christmas.

In papers filed with the court, the lawyers accused the Australian government of failing
to fulfil its constitutional obligation to protect Australian citizens abroad.

Hicks' father, Terry Hicks, today said he was hopeful his son would return to Australia
for Christmas.

"The more support that we get, the more pressure we can put on the government to bring
David home," Mr Hicks said.

"I know there are still people out there that want David hanged but I believe there
are more people now asking questions.

"The Australian public are not as silly as the government thinks they are."

AAP sl/jt/de

KEYWORD: HICKS NIGHTLEAD

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