Brits 'looking to deny Hicks passport'

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BRITISH authorities are seeking a reason not to grant Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks a British passport, his British lawyer said. Hicks, detained by the United States without trial since 2001, had applied for British citizenship on the basis his mother had been a UK citizen. But he had been told there might be public policy issues which would prevent the passport being issued.

Hicks was expected to be one of the first at Guantanamo Bay to face trial, probably in February. Lawyer Steven Gross said he had received a letter from the British Home Office. "We don't know that they are going to refuse to register but they're certainly thinking about that," he said. "That seems to be the tenor of their letter."

He agreed it might be that they do not want to give a passport to a person the US wants to put on trial. "That may well be it, yes." Mr Gross said the British government had referred the legal team to three legal precedents. "In two of those cases, what the court said was that a person couldn't rely on his own serious wrongdoing to obtain a benefit," he said. "In the third one, you couldn't acquire a benefit if you wanted to use it in order to commit a serious crime.

"Those considerations don't apply to David Hicks. He hasn't been convicted of any offence. He denies any offence. He hasn't even been tried yet. "He certainly isn't intending to be use his British citizenship in order to commit a criminal offence."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17062326%255E29277,00.html