Hicks's trial process is rigged: officials
August 1, 2005 - 10:17AM
The United States military commission process under which Australian David Hicks will be tried for terrorism offences is flawed, with juries selected to ensure conviction, two former prosecutors have claimed.
In the latest setback to the US military commission process, the two former prosecutors, who have since transferred to other duties, criticised the process as flawed and perpetrating a fraud on the American people.
In leaked emails obtained by the ABC, prosecutor Major Robert Preston described cases to be tried as marginal.
"I consider the insistence on processing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even fraud on the American people.
"Surely they don't expect that this fairly half-assed effort is all that we have been able to put together after all this time," he said in one email.
In another leaked email a second prosecutor, Captain John Carr, also expressed misgivings.
When I volunteered to assist with this process and was assigned to this office I expected there would at least be a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused," he wrote.
"Instead I find a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged."
Captain Carr made a variety of claims about the process - allegations of abuse of detainees were ignored, evidence had disappeared and prosecutors were offering advice to the appointing authority.
He also said he had been told the juries deciding the cases would be stacked.
"You have repeatedly said to the office, the military panel will be hand-picked and will not acquit these detainees and we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel," he said in the email to a superior officer.
Hicks's military lawyer Major Michael Mori said he was shocked.
"I would be very surprised if the Australian Government was provided any of this information at the time they were negotiating and looking at the military commission system to see if it was appropriate or not," he told ABC Radio.
"When you look at the system and how it is operating and you look at the information that has just come out, I would hope that they would say enough's enough."
Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway, legal adviser to the military commissions, said the Pentagon had conducted its own investigation and found no legal or ethical problems.
He said the office of the Department of Defence Inspector General conducted a two-month long inquiry and concluded most of this was the result of miscommunications, misunderstanding and personality conflicts
"There were some changes in the way cases were processed but we found no evidence of any criminal misconduct," he told ABC Radio.
"We found no evidence of any ethical violations."
Brigadier General Hemingway said there had been a constant exchange of information with the Australian embassy in Washington.
"We certainly would have shared it with them if we found that there was any evidence of misconduct in the office of the prosecution, but we did not find any such evidence," he told ABC Radio.
"All of the cases I have recommended that the appointing authority refer to trial are cases upon which I thought there was sufficient evidence to warrant sending to a fact-finder.
"In each of the four cases which have been referred, the appointing authority John Alterburgh made an independent determination that the evidence was sufficient to warrant trial."
Brigadier General Hemingway rejected the claim juries would be hand-picked to ensure convictions.
"Any such assertion is clearly incorrect," he said. There is absolutely no evidence that it is rigged."
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has said the military trial of Hicks will begin within weeks.
He said the officials with whom he spoke in Washington told him they had substantial evidence against the Australian terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay.
Hicks is accused of fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan and is the only Australian held in the prison at the US Navy base in Cuba.
AAP
And Who the Hell would believe the American Government and the Bush Administration their asses will be covered and someone else will take the fall. WHAT IS NEW
Link Here
The United States military commission process under which Australian David Hicks will be tried for terrorism offences is flawed, with juries selected to ensure conviction, two former prosecutors have claimed.
In the latest setback to the US military commission process, the two former prosecutors, who have since transferred to other duties, criticised the process as flawed and perpetrating a fraud on the American people.
In leaked emails obtained by the ABC, prosecutor Major Robert Preston described cases to be tried as marginal.
"I consider the insistence on processing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even fraud on the American people.
"Surely they don't expect that this fairly half-assed effort is all that we have been able to put together after all this time," he said in one email.
In another leaked email a second prosecutor, Captain John Carr, also expressed misgivings.
When I volunteered to assist with this process and was assigned to this office I expected there would at least be a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused," he wrote.
"Instead I find a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged."
Captain Carr made a variety of claims about the process - allegations of abuse of detainees were ignored, evidence had disappeared and prosecutors were offering advice to the appointing authority.
He also said he had been told the juries deciding the cases would be stacked.
"You have repeatedly said to the office, the military panel will be hand-picked and will not acquit these detainees and we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel," he said in the email to a superior officer.
Hicks's military lawyer Major Michael Mori said he was shocked.
"I would be very surprised if the Australian Government was provided any of this information at the time they were negotiating and looking at the military commission system to see if it was appropriate or not," he told ABC Radio.
"When you look at the system and how it is operating and you look at the information that has just come out, I would hope that they would say enough's enough."
Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway, legal adviser to the military commissions, said the Pentagon had conducted its own investigation and found no legal or ethical problems.
He said the office of the Department of Defence Inspector General conducted a two-month long inquiry and concluded most of this was the result of miscommunications, misunderstanding and personality conflicts
"There were some changes in the way cases were processed but we found no evidence of any criminal misconduct," he told ABC Radio.
"We found no evidence of any ethical violations."
Brigadier General Hemingway said there had been a constant exchange of information with the Australian embassy in Washington.
"We certainly would have shared it with them if we found that there was any evidence of misconduct in the office of the prosecution, but we did not find any such evidence," he told ABC Radio.
"All of the cases I have recommended that the appointing authority refer to trial are cases upon which I thought there was sufficient evidence to warrant sending to a fact-finder.
"In each of the four cases which have been referred, the appointing authority John Alterburgh made an independent determination that the evidence was sufficient to warrant trial."
Brigadier General Hemingway rejected the claim juries would be hand-picked to ensure convictions.
"Any such assertion is clearly incorrect," he said. There is absolutely no evidence that it is rigged."
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has said the military trial of Hicks will begin within weeks.
He said the officials with whom he spoke in Washington told him they had substantial evidence against the Australian terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay.
Hicks is accused of fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan and is the only Australian held in the prison at the US Navy base in Cuba.
AAP
And Who the Hell would believe the American Government and the Bush Administration their asses will be covered and someone else will take the fall. WHAT IS NEW
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 1:22 AM
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