Hicks fears son could face death

[cal04]

THE Government must secure a written guarantee Australian terrorist suspect David Hicks will not face the death penalty, his father said today.

Hicks' military lawyer Major Michael Mori today said his client could be sentenced to death if a new military commission system passed through the United States Congress.


(snip)
A spokesman for the Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said although the new legislation would permit the death penalty, the US Government had given repeated assurances it would not seek it for Hicks.

(snip)
"A lot of the public are now coming on side with us," he said(Mr Hicks). "The public are realising that ... regardless of these so-called charges and everything, it's been four-and-a-half-years and he still hasn't faced any trial system."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20259061-1702,00.html

[Eugene]

1. Reuters: No death penalty for Guantanamo inmate: Australia

No death penalty for Guantanamo inmate: Australia
Sat Aug 26, 2006 3:03am ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has received assurances the United States
will not seek the death penalty for Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate
David Hicks if it brings new charges against him, Attorney General
Philip Ruddock said on Saturday.

Australia believes that new charges are likely to be laid against Hicks,
who has been held at the U.S. detention camp in Cuba for four years,
after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that planned military trials
for Guantanamo inmates were illegal.

Ruddock and the Australian government have consistently supported the
military commission process and refused to seek Hicks' repatriation
but had been given an assurance Hicks would not receive the death penalty
if convicted.

Ruddock said that would continue to be the case now that Washington is
drafting plans to try enemy combatants based on military court martial
procedures, with a number of key changes.

-snip-

Full article: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-26T070301Z_01_SYD10608_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-AUSTRALIA-GUANTANAMO.xml

[AusGail]

2. It is the Australian politicians that should be on trial

for leaving Hicks in that hell-hole for so long. He did not murder anybody, and even if he is guilty of the trumped up charges against him, he's already served his sentence.

What about the other poor wretches that are left there, with nobody to speak up for them. Are they going to be left there forever?