US 'Still Reviewing Evidence' Against Gitmo Aussie
US prosecutors are moving ahead with plans to charge Australian terrorist suspect David Hicks, a spokesperson for the US Office of Military Commissions said today.
Evidence against Hicks was still being reviewed.
"The prosecution is currently still reviewing the evidence and the new rules of military commission, and when they are ready they will bring charges as appropriate," Major Beth Kubala, a spokeswoman for the Office of Military Commissions, said.
Prime Minister John Howard has set a deadline of mid-February for the US government to charge Hicks.
Hicks, 31, has been in US custody since his capture near Baghlan, Afghanistan, in December 2001.
The Adelaide man has been held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more than five years.
He was originally charged with conspiracy, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy, but the charges were dropped last year when the US Supreme Court ruled the military commissions designed to prosecute Hicks and other enemy combatants were illegal.
New rules for military commissions were revealed by the US government on January 18.
AUSTRALIAN terrorism suspect David Hicks has written a letter from his Guantanamo Bay prison cell in which he details his distrust of Australian embassy officials.
Hicks wrote the letter today when an Australian official, according to his Adelaide lawyer David McLeod, arrived at Guantanamo "for an unannounced and clearly hastily arranged meeting with David Hicks".
Mr McLeod and other members of Hicks's legal team, including US appointed military lawyer Major Michael Mori, are also at Guantanamo.
Hicks has been imprisoned at Guantanamo for more than five years.
"I don't want to see you," Hicks wrote in the letter to the visiting Australian official.
"I am afraid to speak to you."
Hicks, who also wrote he is "not well", then detailed in the letter how he had been punished previously for speaking to Australian embassy officials.
The Adelaide man also alleges an American recently impersonated an Australian official.
"Only last week an American impersonated an Australian embassy official by claiming he was 'from the Australian embassy in Washington'," Hicks wrote.
"This deteriorates my trust even further.
"In the past I have been punished for speaking to you.
"I am not well, I am not OK and yet you have not done anything for me and the Australian Government keeps saying I'm fine and in an acceptable situation.
"To speak with you and tell you the truth and reality of my situation 'once again' would only risk further punishments.
"You are not here for me but on behalf of the Australian Government who are leaving me here.
"If you want to do something for me then get me out of here".
Mr McLeod said the unnamed Australian official arrived at Guantanamo unannounced this morning.
The lawyer said the official was given a tour of the new prison facility, Camp 6, where Hicks is now housed.
"Despite persistent unsuccessful requests for Hicks' legal team to see the facilities at Camp 6, the consul was given a guided tour this morning and taken into David's cell without Hicks knowledge or consent and while he was conferring with his legal team," Mr McLeod wrote in a statement released to the media.
"Subsequently the consul attended at the interview facility at GTMO (Guantanamo) where David was conferring with his legal team to meet with Hicks, but alerted to this, David said he did not want to see him.
"Instead he wrote a letter which David's military lawyer Maj Mori provided to the consul in which he made it clear that he did not want to see him."
Despite the letter from Hicks, the Australian official was taken to see Hicks, Mr McLeod wrote.
"Notwithstanding this letter the Australian consul was escorted by US camp lawyers to see David," Mr McLeod wrote.
"Currently we do not know the outcome of this forced interrogation which is clearly a cynical exercise in damage control."
Hicks, 31, has been in US custody since his capture near Baghlan, Afghanistan, in December 2001.
A spokesperson at the Australian embassy in Washington DC could not be immediately reached.
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 3:27 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home