Lock up Hicks ultimatum
Ian McPhedran, defence reporter
06feb02
AMERICA has threatened not to release alleged terrorist David Hicks into Australian custody unless the Federal Government can guarantee his conviction and a maximum jail term.
The 26-year-old Adelaide man was captured by anti-Taliban forces during a fire fight with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist fighters in Afghanistan last November. He has been detained since December 8 and is living in a cage at Camp X-Ray at the US Navy base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with other Al-Qaeda prisoners.
The Courier-Mail has learned that during his interrogation on a US warship Hicks admitted to undertaking 20 to 24 weeks of intensive terrorist training in camps such as those shown in captured Al-Qaeda video footage.
"The purpose of the camps is to train terrorists to kill people," an Australian Government source said.
Australian ministers, including Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Defence Minister Robert Hill, want Hicks returned home to face trial.
It is understood Senator Hill was left in no doubt during his recent visit to Washington that America would detain Hicks indefinitely unless it was convinced he would be convicted and receive the maximum jail sentence under Australian law.
Hicks is being held under an executive military order issued by President George W. Bush and has been denied any legal rights.
The Australian Government has three options: it can pursue Hicks under the Crimes, Foreign Incursions and Recruitment Act; introduce retrospective laws to penalise Australian terrorists; or leave him to rot in his cage. Under the existing Act, Hicks would face a maximum of 14 years' jail for engaging in a "hostile activity", but only if it can be proved he entered a foreign country for that purpose.
At present it is not an offence for an Australian to train in a foreign terrorist training camp. Hicks had previously undertaken military training in Kosovo and with terrorists in Kashmir.
Adelaide lawyer Steve Kenny said that if Hicks had committed an offence he should be brought before a court and tried.
"If there is no offence and no charge, then he should be released," he said.
Mr Kenny said a petition seeking to clarify Hicks' legal status would be filed in the US within a week.
US officials, including Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made it clear the rule of law did not apply to men labelled "unlawful combatants". Other foreigners, including Al-Qaeda fighters from Britain and France, are being held without legal representation at Camp X-Ray.
A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Daryl Williams said Hicks was under Australian Federal Police investigation and that process could take "some time".
"The Americans are prepared to hold them (foreign prisoners) for as long as it takes," she said.
Hicks had made threats against his US guards, telling them he wanted to kill an American, but according to the latest reports he has calmed down.
"We haven't had to settle him at all lately," a Camp X-Ray guard told the Washington Post.
"He knows what he did, he knows he messed up."
Authorities have no word on the fate of two other Australians allegedly fighting with Al-Qaeda.
Courier-Mail