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Top Australian Lawyers Condemn GuantanamoBay Detention
Agence France Presse
June 3, 2006
SYDNEY, June 3, 2006 (AFP) - A group of 76 senior lawyers Saturday urged Prime Minister John Howard to condemn the detention of an Australian at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for more than four years.
The lawyers, including four former Federal and Supreme Court judges, made the call for the release of David Hicks in an open letter to Howard, a close ally of US President George W. Bush.
The treatment of Hicks, a convert to Islam dubbed the "Australian Taliban" by the media, is illegal under international law, states the letter.
It was published in The Weekend Australian with former Supreme Court judge John Dowd QC -- the president of the Australian section of the International Commission of Jurists -- signing on behalf of the 76 lawyers.
"The imprisonment at GuantanamoBay and the unfair trial of Hicks by military commission are an affront to international legal standards, indeed all civilised legal standards," the lawyers say.
Hicks, 30, has been at the US military facility of Guantanamo Bay since January 2002 after he was captured for allegedly fighting alongside the former Taliban regime allied to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges by a US military commission of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder, and aiding the enemy.
"Whether or not Hicks is guilty or innocent is not the issue. The illegality lies in the process of indefinite detention and unfair trial by military commission," the lawyers said.
The letter calls on Australia to join Britain in condemning the violations of law perpetrated by the detentions at GuantanamoBay.
To meet the challenge of terrorism the world needs a "sustained commitment to the rule of law and fundamental principles of human dignity and respect for human rights.
"This is the shared heritage of a civilised world. Unless we are vigilant, terrorism may achieve the destruction of these values. We should not give it such a victory," the letter said.
Howard last month brushed aside comments by British attorney-general, Lord Peter Goldsmith, who said the continued detention of nearly 500 alleged terrorist suspects at GuantanamoBay was "unacceptable" and the facility should be closed.
"We listen to what other governments say on these matters, we don't necessarily agree with them," Howard said.
Britain has obtained the release of all its nationals held at Guanatanamo, while Australia has backed the continued prosecution of Hicks by the US military.
The Australian is one of only 10 of the more than 400 detainees at Guantanamo to have been charged with terrorism offenses.
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