Fed: Hicks still in limbo despite fleeting hopes of freedom

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2006
Fed: Hicks still in limbo despite fleeting hopes of freedom

By Steve Larkin

ADELAIDE, AAP - David Hicks twice thought he'd be free.

But the year 2006 ended for Hicks much as his past five years have done - in solitary
confinement in Guantanamo Bay; yet to face trial on terror charges.

Lawyers for the Adelaide-born man accused of training with al-Qaeda tried almost every
trick in the book to get Hicks freed this year.

They won various legal skirmishes, and the US military commissions set to try him were
declared illegal, but Hicks remains in detention at the US military facility at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.

He has been there since January 2002 - a month after being captured among Taliban forces
in Afghanistan and sold by Northern Alliance militia to US forces for $15,000.

Hicks' initial hopes of freedom came after he won British citizenship, raising hopes
the Brits would treat him as one of their own and press for his release from Guantanamo
Bay.

They didn't.

Instead, Britain's Home Office appealed the citizenship verdict, which had been based
on Hicks' mother being British.

The Home Office lost.

But in its appeal, the office said Hicks told MI5 agents who interrogated him in 2003
that he received extensive training at camps in Kashmir and Afghanistan and met the late
Abu Hafs, an al-Qaeda kingpin who prior to his death in 2001 was named by Osama bin Laden
as his successor.

The British sent a letter to Hicks' lawyers setting out why the Home Office was unwilling
to grant Hicks citizenship, citing the interview Hicks had with MI5 in April 2003 in Guantanamo
Bay.

"Mr Hicks admitted ... attending a (Lashkar-e-Toiba) training camp in Kashmir in around
2000 ... attending the Al Farooq system of camps in Afghanistan in around 2001 ... (and)
receiving training in weapons and guerrilla warfare," the letter said.

The letter said Hicks also had admitted "training with a number of UK nationals known
to be Islamic extremists" including Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" now serving a life
sentence for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with a bomb concealed in his shoe
in 2001.

After losing its appeal, the Blair government refused to act on Hicks' behalf and lobby
for his release, as they had successfully done for other British citizens detained at
Guantanamo Bay.

Hicks' hopes of freedom must also have been raised in June, when the US Supreme Court
ruled the military commissions were unlawful and breached Geneva conventions.

The Australian terror suspect had pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder,
aiding the enemy and conspiracy before the commission in August 2004.

But those charges were struck out by the Supreme Court, which prompted fresh calls
for Hicks release from his lawyers and supporters.

Instead, the US government rewrote the commission rules and Hicks was back to square
one - detained without charge.

Lawyers for Hicks, 31, have now taken action in the Federal Court of Australia seeking
to have him freed from Guantanamo Bay.

Hicks' legal team appeared in the Federal Court in December in an attempt to get an
order for the Australian government to demand US authorities free the former jackaroo
as soon as possible.

But the court ordered they return on February 26 next year, when government lawyers
will explain why they believe the court doesn't have power to hear the case.

AAP sl/sp/de

KEYWORD: YEARENDER HICKS

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