Australian Guantanamo detainee charged

Updated 11.11 Fri Mar 02 2007

Keywords: Guantanamo Bay, Australian, David Hicks, terrorism

The US military has charged the only Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee with providing support for terrorism.

The charges against David Hicks, 31, are the first brought against a suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban member under a law passed by the US congress last year.

"They are repeating history, creating a new crime after the fact and trying to apply it to David retroactively" - Michael Mori

Hicks, who worked as a kangaroo skinner before he allegedly joined the Taliban after converting to Islam, has been held at the US detention centre since January 2002.

He now faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment but his Pentagon-appointed lawyer says the offence he is accused of was made up.

US Marine Corps Major Michael Mori said the charge was created after the the US congress approved a new military commission last November just five months after the US Supreme Court ruled that the original tribunal proposal was illegal.

Mr Mori said: "I think today with the attempted murder charge being dismissed is an admission by the commission system that all the charges they laid against David and held him in Guantanamo Bay for five years were made up and had no basis in law and fact."

He added: "Now they are doing it again. They are repeating history, creating a new crime after the fact and trying to apply it to David retroactively, something that the Attorney General in Australia has said is completely inappropriate."

US prosecutors argue that the offence did exist at the time of Hicks' capture, but that the charge was simply modified to fit the new military commission system.