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Australian Govt Says Guantanamo Detainee Won't Fface Death Penalty

Agence France Presse
August 26, 2006

SYDNEY - The Australian government said Saturday that the country's sole Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks would not face the death penalty under a revamped US military commission system.

Hicks's US defence lawyer Marine Corp Major Michael Mori had raised concerns that Hicks could face execution under a new military justice system being developed after the US Supreme Court last month found the old one unlawful.

Australia had received assurances from the Pentagon that the death penalty would not be sought under the old system but Mori said the pledge did not automatically extend to the new one.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said US officials had told him the pledge still stood.

"We have been given a specific assurance, which has been reiterated to me on a number of occasions, that the death penalty would not be sought in David Hicks' case," he told Sky News.

"In relation to the implementation of a military commission by legislation, that assurance does not change in any shape or form whatsoever."

Hicks, 31, has been held at the US military's Guanatanamo Bay base in Cuba since January 2002 after being captured allegedly fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.

The Muslim convert was charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy after allegedly training in Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

He is yet to face trial and was one of a handful of Guantanamo detainees scheduled to face a special military tribunal before the US Supreme Court ruled they violated the Geneva Convention and US military law.

The Australian government, which has been criticized for supporting Hicks's detention, signaled for the first time last month that it would seek his repatriation if delays with his US military trial persisted.

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