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Penelope Debelle

LAWYERS for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks may mount another legal challenge in Britain to try to force the British Government to lobby for his release.

The British decision not to assist Hicks was "not unexpected", said Hicks' US military defence lawyer, Major Michael Mori, but there was an option to go back to court once Hicks became a British citizen.

"It's not shocking that they are playing politics, that they are not sticking to their values," Major Mori said in Washington. "Obviously we hoped that Britain was going to stick to its position on Guantanamo, especially since Australia takes a position on the commissions completely opposite that of Great Britain."

The Australian Government supported the United States' right to detain and try Hicks, but Britain objected and secured the release from Guantanamo of nine of its citizens.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australian officials had been briefed on the British Government decision. "It's really nothing to do with us," he told ABC Radio.

But Hicks' father, Terry Hicks, who has campaigned extensively for his son's release, queried Mr Downer's presence in Britain at the time that Britain's Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, decided not to help.

"It's quite strange that every time anything goes against us, they're there," Mr Hicks said. "They just happen to be in the same country or whatever."

Prime Minister John Howard said Australia had not canvassed a particular point of view with the British.

"We have said repeatedly that it was a matter for the British," he said.

Mr Hicks said it was another disappointment for his son, who was in poor physical and mental health and was being held in isolation for 22 hours a day in a concrete cell at Guantanamo.

He said Hicks, who was no longer a Muslim, wanted to return to Australia to live a normal life and had been hoping Britain would help.

"Bottom line is they've just said 'that's it', they don't care whether he's a British citizen or not, so No. 2 country has let him down," Mr Hicks said.

Meanwhile, a decision is imminent in the US Supreme Court challenge to the legality of the military commissions intended to try detainees. If the case by Salim Hamdan succeeds, the US Administration may speed up its decision on the future of the controversial detention facility where Hicks has been held without trial.

With JEWEL TOPSFIELD

SOURCE: The Age