30/09/2006
FEDERAL Attorney General Phillip Ruddock has renewed urgent calls for Australian terror suspect David Hicks to be brought to trial as quickly as possible, but warns this is unlikely to happen before the new year.
In Washington to meet American officials about the US military commissions, Mr Ruddock said there were timing issues associated with the promulgation of new terror interrogation laws, passed by the US Senate yesterday. US President George W Bush was expected to sign the bill between now and Monday, and the finer details of the legislation then needed to be sorted out, Mr Ruddock said. "Then there is the issue as to whether or not, in relation to those who might be charged, charges need to be reformulated," Mr Ruddock said in Washington. "I've sought assurances and have been given them that, in relation to Mr Hicks, in particular, all of the issues that we had raised over time dealing with the nature of evidence that will be produced, the fairness of the trial process, the question of representation would be dealt with in accordance with the assurances that had been provided before." The Bush Administration had assured him Mr Hicks was among the first who would appear before a commission, and it was their desire this happen as quickly as possible, Mr Ruddock said. "It may be early in the new year that you would be looking at the point where all those processes that follow the enactment of the legislation would have been undertaken," he said. Mr Ruddock said he was satisfied the new terror legislation would protect Mr Hicks' rights. "I'm satisfied that the issues that were raised by us which go to independent representation, that go to the evidence being adduced wholly to him that, accepting relations of security issues, the trial itself would be open and that he would be innocent until proven guilty ... they're present in the military commission process," Mr Ruddock said. On the question of habeas corpus, which refers to a person's right to go before an independent judge who rules on the legality of the detention, Mr Ruddock said this was protected by a separate appeals process. "In relation to the question of the lawfulness of a person's detention, which is what habeas corpus is about, the Administration provided for a separate review mechanism for those who were detainees of the military," he said. "The expectation is that all of the detainees' circumstances would be reviewed separately, and Mr Hicks' continued detention has been the subject of a review, as I recall." Mr Ruddock also expressed his confidence in the legal framework surrounding the use of torture to extract information from detainees. "The President has made it clear that if torture is to be used in relation to obtaining evidence, it will not be evidence that can be admitted before a military commission," he said. "The framework recognises that there is something that is less than torture ... coercive techniques that might be used, and the legislation, as I understand it, has made it clear that that will only be admitted if it has probity value." There was nothing to indicate the charges against Mr Hicks were likely to be modified other than to undergo "technical reformulation", he said. Mr Hicks, 31, has been detained by the US military at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba since January 2002, a month after his capture with Taliban forces in Afghanistan. He had previously pleaded not guilty at a military commission hearing to charges of conspiracy, aiding the enemy and attempted murder. But following a US Supreme Court ruling in June that the commissions were unlawful and violated Geneva conventions, those charges were dropped, and new laws drafted. SOURCE: The Australian |
