Terror case plea deal sparks anger in US, Australia

"The plea deal in particular has the taint of coerced statements and secrecy. The deal effectively censors anything Mr. Hicks might allege about what he says he suffered and implausibly characterizes the last five years of his detention as justified under the laws of war."

"Add in the widespread perception that the plea deal was in part the result of intense political and diplomatic pressures, and the conclusion is inescapable that these military commissions don't deal justice, they deny it," Byrnes said.

A key focus of Ms. Byrnes' criticism is that the plea agreement prevents Hicks from claiming he was "illegally treated" while in US custody. The Los Angeles Times notes that, while attempting to obtain British citizenship and protection, Hicks had told a British court that he had been repeatedly beaten, sodomized, and forced into painful positions during interrogations.

In Australia, much of the criticism of the plea agreement has centered on the year-long gag order that mandates that Hicks must not talk to the media – either directly or through third parties – about his crimes or detention until March 2008. The duration of the gag order covers Australia's election season, during which Prime Minister John Howard – a long-time supporter of President Bush – will seek another term. He is facing a stiff challenge, and Hicks's imprisonment of more than five years at Guantánamo has been an issue for Mr. Howard's campaign.

The Australian national newspaper reports that both politicians and academics have questioned the motives for the gag order.

"I can accept the imposition of a no-profit clause. But not being able to speak to the media for a year? You've got to question what's going to be achieved by gagging him for that length of time," said Geoff Holland of the the University of Technology, Sydney, an expert on freedom of speech. "If it's something he could say that would compromise Australian security, then one would expect the gag would be ongoing."

Greens leader Bob Brown claimed the gag had been sought by the Howard Government. "It's a fix," Senator Brown said. "The message has gone very clearly from Canberra to Washington to Guantanamo Bay: 'Don't allow Hicks to be released until after the elections and certainly don't allow him to speak'.

"It's tawdry, it's despicable, it's a political fix overriding what should have been an Australian justice matter right from the outset."

However, a spokesman for Howard said that the gag order was "entirely a matter for the Americans," reports The Sydney Morning Herald, and that Howard later personally refuted the accusation of gagging Hicks for political purposes.

But Mr Howard said it was "ridiculous" to suggest the sentence had been framed with the election in mind. "We didn't impose the sentence, the sentence was imposed by the military commission and the plea bargain was worked out between the military prosecution and Mr Hicks's lawyers, and the suggestion ... that it's got something to do with the Australian election is absurd."

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, said it was a coincidence that Hicks would be released and the gag order would expire soon after the federal election. The sentence was "a deal between the prosecution, the defence and the so-called Convening Authority. It is not that the Australian Government said to the defence, 'well, no, you should take a nine-month period until we are after the election' or anything like that."

The Advertiser of South Australia notes that Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd said that, if elected, a Labor government would honor the terms of Hicks's sentence.

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