[Ppnews] US charges Australian at Guantanamo

[Political Prisoner News]

US charges Australian at Guantanamo
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7946E997-26CD-48DF-9518-B3BD123AFC1F.htm


The US military has charged Australia's only Guantanamo Bay detainee 
with providing material support for terrorism, the Pentagon has said.

The charges against David Hicks are the first brought against a 
suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban member under the military commissions 
law passed by the US Congress last year, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
Legal proceedings are expected to begin in a month.

John Howard, Australia's prime minister, had demanded Hicks be 
charged by the end of February and pressed Washington for a speedy trial.

Torture and abuse

Hicks, 31, who has been in US custody at the Guantanamo military 
prison for five years, has complained of torture and abuse.

He said he had been shown a photo of a battered fellow inmate, and 
was told he would be sent to Egypt for similar treatment if he did 
not co-operate, Australian media said on Friday.

Hicks said the anxiety caused by months of abuse forced him to "say 
anything" to US military interrogators.

The US military accuses Hicks of supporting terrorism by attending 
al-Qaeda training courses, conducting surveillance on the US embassy 
in Kabul, and briefly fighting US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

A second charge of "attempted murder" was not advanced. An attorney 
for Hicks said the charge of providing material support has never 
existed in the laws of war and that his client had "no hope" of 
getting a fair trial.

"All this time, we have been told that David had to be tried by 
military commission rather than in a federal court because the 
offences were war crimes," Major Michael Mori, defence lawyer in the 
Pentagon's military commissions office, said.

"But after five years, the US has not charged David with a single war crime."

The Pentagon appoints US military lawyers to detainees facing charges 
at Guantanamo.

Charges

The military charges that Hicks took part in operations against 
coalition forces during the early stages of the US-led war in 
Afghanistan in October 2001.

He guarded a tank outside of Kandahar airport for a week and while 
there trained others, according to the charges.

Hicks then moved to Kabul and Kunduz, looking for combat 
opportunities, the US military said.

In Kunduz, he joined for two hours a group of al-Qaeda and Taliban 
members fighting US-led forces, according to the documents.

The next day, Kunduz fell to US forces and Hicks fled, only to be 
captured in Afghanistan by Northern Alliance forces while trying to 
reach Pakistan, the documents stated.

The US has been criticised worldwide for the continued detention at 
Guantanamo Bay of people the Pentagon says are al-Qaeda and Taliban members.

Many have been held for about five years without being charged.

The Pentagon on Thursday said it had transferred five detainees to 
Afghanistan and Tajikistan, bringing the number of remaining detainees to 385.


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