David Hicks: US government agrees former Guantanamo Bay detainee is innocent, lawyer says

Updated

The United States has agreed that former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Australian David Hicks, is innocent, his lawyer has said.

Mr Hicks pleaded guilty in 2007 to providing "material support for terrorism" but his legal team claimed that he did so under duress and filed an appeal last year.

Mr Hicks's lawyer was confident his name was set to be cleared after the change of position by the US government.

Mr Hicks had appealed against his 2007 conviction for providing material support for terrorism.

Lawyer Stephen Kenny said they had been told the government did not dispute his innocence and also admitted that his conviction was not correct.

He expected to hear within a month whether the Military Commission would quash his conviction.

"I have no doubt, that whether or not the Military Commission clears David, he will certainly be cleared in the higher courts of the United States if we need to go there," Mr Kenny said.

There had been court rulings that the charge Mr Hicks pleaded guilty to was not actually a crime so the charge was "simply invalid", he said.

"[It is] a fact we've known for some time, but it's taken the court some time to come to that conclusion," Mr Kenny said.

The delay in agreeing to Mr Hicks's innocence stemmed from part of his plea bargain, in which he agreed he would never appeal his conviction, Mr Kenny said.

"This is unusual in Australia, but not unusual in the United States and so the United States government is saying 'although he's innocent he signed this agreement not to appeal and therefore the court has no jurisdiction to consider it and secondly, as a matter of contract law, the court should hold David to his bargain'," he said.

"Now the difficulty the government has is that contract law has nothing to do with this case and the second problem they have is the Military Commission can determine its own jurisdiction, and of course they have jurisdiction to consider this matter.

"So we have no doubts that the Military Commission, following the [former Sudanese Guantanamo Bay detainee] Noor [Muhammed] case, will make a ruling now that David Hicks' conviction should be set aside."

Mr Kenny said David Hicks was very pleased about the latest developments.

"He understands that we're really on the last straight to having his conviction cleared. So of course he is very excited about it and he would be very pleased to have his name cleared."

Mr Kenny hoped the Australian Government would apologise for its part in Mr Hicks's treatment.

"I think their support of holding David in Guantanamo Bay in those conditions for so long is a severe embarassment and he at least deserves an apology from those who were involved," he said.

"The current Government could issue an apology to David on behalf of the Howard Government and recognise that the Australian Government and in particular the Howard Government's support of Guantanamo Bay was a serious error."

Hopes David Hicks will have name cleared: father, former lawyer

Terry Hicks, David's father, said he was relieved the US government appeared to have changed its stance and could potentially clear his son's name.

"I'm just hoping that everything is going along in the right direction. I suppose with the American system you have to be a little bit wary of what's going to happen because even though it came through last night, it will be 30 days before David gets a final resolution," he said.

"We've dealt with the whole thing over the years but David's been the one that's been suffering, so hopefully now he can have a bit of closure and really get on with his life.

"Because it's been going on for such a long time there will still be people out there that believe whatever it is they think he is guilty of regardless.

"I think once it all comes out positive, then we can all get on. I think what happens is a cloud lifts, the question marks are all gone," he said.

David Hicks's former lawyer Michael "Dan" Mori said it would be vindicating if Mr Hicks had his conviction quashed.

"There were two times in this process that I've felt any sort of satisfaction and it was probably firstly when David left Guantanamo and it'll be the day when they actually officially remove his conviction - and that day seems to be a lot closer," Dr Mori said.

Dr Mori, who was appointed as Mr Hicks's military lawyer in 2003 and defended him until the case concluded in 2007, paid tribute to efforts of his civilian defence team.

"This has been a ten-year fight if you were to think about it," he said

"The Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York really is probably the unsung hero in all this.

"They were the civilian law firm that took up the detainee cases, including David back in 2002, and they're still fighting it today, representing him in the US and challenging this.

"And I think at this point, it looks like they're going to get the conviction thrown out."

Mr Hicks was captured in Afghanistan and held at the US naval base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 to 2007, when he pleaded guilty to charges including attempted murder and providing material support for terrorism. The deal saw him serve out the remainder of his sentence in an Australian jail.

He returned to his home city of Adelaide in April 2007 to serve nine months of his sentence at the Yatala Labour Prison.

He now lives in Sydney, while his father Terry remains in Adelaide.

Topics: terrorism, united-states

First posted