'Aussie Taliban' to get his day in court
The imprisonment of David Hicks has stoked anti-American sentiment in the longtime US-ally nation.
from the March 26, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Hicks’s lawyer: previous trial ‘illegal’
Hicks’s outspoken American military lawyer, Maj. Michael Mori of the Marines, has made so many visits to Australia that he
has become something of a celebrity.
Major Mori says that Hicks has already been through one “illegal” trial procedure. After being originally charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit war crimes, and aiding the enemy, he was set to face a military tribunal in November 2005.
But the US Supreme Court intervened and in June last year ruled that the military commission system was illegal because it
contravenes the Geneva Conventions.
Mori says his client fears he has no chance of a fair trial. “[Hicks] will be in the same room where the illegal trial was
held. What hope does that offer him?” he said this week.
The lawyer representing Hicks in Australia, David McLeod, says the years of delay and months in solitary confinement in a
tiny cell have driven the former kangaroo skinner to the brink of mental collapse.
“Everything is as bad as it can be for David Hicks. He’s the longest-serving prisoner of war in Australian history. His treatment
has been shameful and lamentable,” says Mr. McLeod.
“Who arrested him? The Department of Defense. Who interned him? The Department of Defense. Who charged him? The Department
of Defense. Where’s the separation of powers? There is none,” says McLeod.
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