28/06/2006
AUSTRALIA will have to reconsider its position on David Hicks if the US Supreme Court rules that the military commission process is unacceptable, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said.
Mr Hicks has spent more than four years at the US military prison Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after being captured with the Taliban in Afghanistan in December 2001. He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy when he faced a military commission hearing in August 2004, but has yet to be put on trial. His trial delay is partly because of a landmark case before the US Supreme Court brought by lawyers for another Guantanamo Bay detainee to test the legality of the military commissions. The US Supreme Court is expected to announce its ruling later this week.
Mr Downer said Australia stood by America's right to prosecute Hicks. "He has been charged with very serious charges," Mr Downer told Britain's BBC radio. "The credibility of the military commissions is being tested now in the US Supreme Court, so they will make the ultimate judgment about whether the military commissions are an appropriate form of trial or whether they're not. "If they uphold the military commission process, that would be satisfactory for us. "Of course, if they say that the military commissions are completely unacceptable and shouldn't proceed, the Americans will be back to square one and we'll obviously have to consider our position."
SOURCE: News.com.au
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