Home trial for Hicks
By ROY ECCLESTON and ROBERT GARRAN
The Australian
12jan02
AUSTRALIAN Taliban fighter David Hicks is expected to be returned to Australia for trial within months, possibly weeks. But he is likely to be shipped first to the US military jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Defence Minister Robert Hill said in Washington yesterday that the Howard Government was still considering the legal charges and case against Mr Hicks. He believed the US wanted him "prosecuted under Australian law in Australia".
Senator Hill told The Weekend Australian the timeframe for Hicks's return might be a matter of weeks but could run into months.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at a joint press conference at the Pentagon that it might be useful to keep Mr Hicks for some time in case he needed to be interviewed again as new intelligence information arose.
"What I've advised the minister is: it's in our interests to take these people of various nationalities, including an American as well as an Australian, and see that we engage in the kinds of interrogations and intelligence-gathering that will enable us to do the best job possible to stop future terrorist attacks," Mr Rumsfeld said.
"So you don't hurry this; you take your time and you try to do it right."
Mr Rumsfeld was unsure whether Mr Hicks, on board USS Bataan with American Taliban fighter John Walker, would be in the first or second groups moved to the US base in Cuba.
Senator Hill denied this meant the US intended holding Mr Hicks for a lengthy period.
He said the US's willingness to continue to hold Mr Hicks suited Australia because the Government had yet to finalise the charges to be levelled against the former Adelaide man.
"It's given us the opportunity to interview him," he said. "It's given us an opportunity to review the quite complex legal issues involved.
"And at an appropriate time we will then speak to the Americans about our desire to have him prosecuted in Australia."
Asked if he had been assured the US would return him to Australian authorities, rather than try him at a US military tribunal where the penalty could be death, Senator Hill replied that Canberra was working on the "assumption" that the US wanted him tried in Australia. A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Daryl Williams said it would be some weeks before investigations concluded and a decision was made on whether to charge Mr Hicks.
She said the Government was still awaiting confirmation that he would be sent to Cuba.
"If we can charge him under Australian law, we will seek to have him brought back here, but it's too early to pre-empt that," the spokeswoman said.
"We're in discussions with the US, and we're still able to have contact with him while he's in US military custody.
"From our point of view, it doesn't matter where he's being held as long as we can get access to him."