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The New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions has described the case of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks as an unprincipled disgrace.

Nicholas Cowdery, QC, says the Australian Government should have acted a long time ago.

He says the Government has no excuse now that the US Supreme Court has ruled that military commissions are unlawful.

Mr Cowdery says the reality is the detainees have not been treated according to the rule of law.

"These people have not been treated according to the rule of law but according to the rule of Bush and his cronies," he said.

Mr Cowdery says the Government must now seek to have Hicks returned to Australia.

"As I understand it, Hicks has not committed any offence against the law of Australia," he said.

"Just as the English nationals were released and taken back to England and are now living back in the community, so Hicks should be brought back to Australia and appropriate arrangements made under Australian law for whatever should happen to him back in the community in Australia."

Hicks has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years.

He is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy.

SOURCE: News.com.au