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<font size=3>US charges Australian at Guantanamo <br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7946E997-26CD-48DF-9518-B3BD123AFC1F.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7946E997-26CD-48DF-9518-B3BD123AFC1F.htm<br>
<br>
<br>
</a>The US military has charged Australia's only Guantanamo Bay detainee
with providing material support for terrorism, the Pentagon has said.
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
Legal proceedings are expected to begin in a month. <br>
<br>
John Howard, Australia's prime minister, had demanded Hicks be charged by
the end of February and pressed Washington for a speedy trial.<br><br>
<b>Torture and abuse<br>
</b> <br>
Hicks, 31, who has been in US custody at the Guantanamo military prison
for five years, has complained of torture and abuse. <br><br>
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. <br>
<br>
Hicks said the anxiety caused by months of abuse forced him to "say
anything" to US military interrogators. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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. <br><br>
"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. <br>
<br>
"But after five years, the US has not charged David with a single
war crime." <br>
<br>
The Pentagon appoints US military lawyers to detainees facing charges at
Guantanamo. <br>
<br>
<b>Charges<br>
</b> <br>
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. <br>
<br>
He guarded a tank outside of Kandahar airport for a week and while there
trained others, according to the charges. <br><br>
Hicks then moved to Kabul and Kunduz, looking for combat opportunities,
the US military said. <br>
<br>
In Kunduz, he joined for two hours a group of al-Qaeda and Taliban
members fighting US-led forces, according to the documents. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
The US has been criticised worldwide for the continued detention at
Guantanamo Bay of people the Pentagon says are al-Qaeda and Taliban
members. <br>
<br>
Many have been held for about five years without being charged. <br>
<br>
The Pentagon on Thursday said it had transferred five detainees to
Afghanistan and Tajikistan, bringing the number of remaining detainees to
385. <br><br>
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