Top judge queries Hicks treatment

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THE Northern Territory's chief justice has raised questions about the lengthy detention of Australian David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. Adelaide-born Hicks has been held by US authorities at Guantanamo Bay since he was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding and abetting the enemy, and is awaiting trial before a US military commission.

"I'm not permitted to enter into debates on political issues, but it is appropriate for me to raise matters for your consideration," Justice Brian Martin said in a wide-ranging address to the Darwin Press Club today. "Since September 2001, the momentum to act proactively against terrorism has grown rapidly and we have reached a point of the introduction of what is loosely called terror legislation. "In the interim we have seen two of our citizens imprisoned in Cuba by our ally, the location having been chosen for the purpose of avoiding compliance with United States law governing the treatment of persons taken into custody.

"Whatever one might think about what David Hicks did or didn't do, and we have no idea because evidence has not yet been presented, is it not totally foreign to our understanding of how a civilised community treats persons charged with offences to incarcerate a person for over four years in the conditions to which David Hicks has been subjected?," he asked. Justice Martin questioned whether it was "excessive" to say Hicks had been caged and treated in a manner most Australians would regard as "utterly unacceptable". "Where has that precarious balance been struck and why have our political leaders generally defended this treatment?" Justice Martin asked.

"Is it because David Hicks represents an unpopular cause and political purposes and influences prevail in the mind of our leaders? "Where is the strength of leadership that demands and provides fundamental protections for individual members of our community? "Where is the strength of leadership that is prepared to stand up for the rights of those individuals regardless of any issue of popularity?" Justice Martin said these issues had nothing to do with the "guilt or innocence" of Hicks. "Other issues, fundamental to our ordered and relatively comfortable way of life are at stake," he said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19036226-1702,00.html