AFP commissioner says police had access to awards night guest list but did not organise the event or know the names of guests’ partners

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Australian federal police did not know David Hicks was attending the same event as the attorney general, George Brandis, on Wednesday night, nor that invitees were not screened before entering the venue.

“The AFP was not aware that Mr Hicks would be at that event,” the AFP’s commissioner, Andrew Colvin, told a Senate estimates committee on Thursday. “The AFP was not involved in the organising of the event.”

Hicks, who was held in Guantánamo Bay for six years and accepted a plea deal on charges of providing material support for terrorism, heckled Brandis at the Human Rights Commission awards ceremony. He said the Liberal party had known he was tortured at the US-run detention centre but failed to act.

On Tuesday the US Senate released a damning report detailing the brutal treatment of terrorism suspects by the CIA.

Colvin said police had access to the invited guest list, but that guests could bring a partner whose name was not submitted to the organisers.

Brandis said he received a list of invited guests before attending, and was also unaware Hicks would be at the ceremony.

“You don’t expect to run into a terrorist at a human rights awards event. But Mr Hicks’s name was not on the list that was provided to me,” Brandis said.

Since his release from Guantánamo, Hicks has maintained he agreed to his plea deal under extreme distress. His lawyers have said he now plans to challenge his conviction.

Brandis said he was satisfied by the protection offered to him by the AFP during the ceremony.

“There was no point whatsoever in which I felt even remotely threatened,” Brandis said. “I didn’t regard it [the heckling] as a particularly significant event.”

He said he was made aware it was Hicks calling out to him only after a staff member informed him several minutes after the incident.

“There was no direct threat to the attorney general,” Colvin said, though he admitted no one was checking invites as guests arrived. “I understand that there was no screening at the door,” Colvin said.

He insisted the AFP security assessment of the threat level on the night was accurate. He said: “I think on many levels the fact that we were there and we had assessed that event as one that the attorney should require some close personal protection and the way the matter was handled on the night I think reflects, from the AFP perspective, that the event was well-managed and well dealt with.”