SA: Court ruling gives hope, but not help, to Hicks

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2003
SA: Court ruling gives hope, but not help, to Hicks

By Sam Lienert

ADELAIDE, Dec 19 AAP - A US court ruling that Guantanamo Bay prisoners should have
access to the American court system provided hope, but no direct help, for Australian
terrorism suspect David Hicks, his lawyer said today.

The ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled yesterday in a 2-1 decision
that all 660 detainees being held without charge at the US military base should have access
to lawyers and US courts.

It was the first such ruling by a US court, resulting from a petition from the brother
of a Libyan man, Falen Gherebi, captured by the US military in Afghanistan.

Among those detained at Guantanamo Bay are Australians Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Hicks' Australian lawyer Stephen Kenny recently became the first defence counsel to
be allowed inside Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Kenny said the Gherebi ruling would not have any bearing on Hicks' case, which was
already set to be heard by the US Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, put by lawyers for Hicks and several other
inmates of the military base, after the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
ruled that the prisoners had no rights to the American legal system.

"The Supreme Court is ultimately the higher court that will need to rule on the legality
of this case," Mr Kenny said from New York.

"What (the San Francisco ruling) does is give me hope that there seems to be a changing
attitude in America.

"I hope that the judges are recognising that there is a need to look carefully at what's
happening at Guantanamo Bay and the human rights of those people that are there.

"The concern I have is that the President's order (to hold the detainees at Guantanamo
Bay) is a significant reduction of the human rights that people would generally expect.

"Basic human rights such as not to be detained without cause should never be surrendered."

Mr Kenny said the decision was the second US court ruling in favour of Guantanamo Bay
detainees, with the Supreme Court's decision to hear Hicks' case the first.

"The ruling that we had from the Supreme Court that they would consider our case is
a ruling of some great significance because the United States Supreme Court is petitioned
by about 5,000 cases per year and they take 80," he said.

He said it was likely the Gherebi case would be appealed to the Supreme Court, possibly
to be heard at the same time as Hicks' case.

Hicks is one of six Guantanamo Bay prisoners who have been nominated to face a military
tribunal and was the first to be appointed a defence lawyer. A second prisoner, a Yemeni
man, was granted a lawyer today.

Mr Kenny, who yesterday said Hicks was likely to be charged with conspiracy, today
said he had no further information on when he would be charged.

AAP scl/sl/drp/jlw

KEYWORD: US GUANTANAMO KENNY

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