NSW:David Hicks takes fight to UN

AAP General News (Australia)
08-21-2011
NSW:David Hicks takes fight to UN

By Lema Samandar

SYDNEY, Aug 21 AAP - Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks is going to the UN
in the hope of clearing his name and getting compensation.

Mr Hicks, 35, has made a submission to the UN's Human Rights Committee.

He is seeking an apology from Australia for upholding and enforcing what he says was
an unlawful charge and penalty, as well as compensation.

Authored by humanitarian lawyer Ben Saul on Hicks' behalf, the submission calls for
Australia to "request the US authorities to formally overturn Mr Hicks' conviction under
US law and to nullify the plea agreement".

It also asks for the federal government to begin an independent investigation "into
allegations that David Hicks was tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment in US custody".

The submission also states Australia had breached several its human rights obligations
to Mr Hicks through its complicity with US authorities and support for the military commission
process.

Mr Hicks' former lawyer Stephen Kenny said the submission to the UN was made public
this weekend but sent out months ago.

"(What comes next is) the Australian government would be required to file an answering
submission to it," Mr Kenny told AAP.

"They have to respond and it may take some time.

"I think what he's trying to do is show that in fact his incarceration and treatment
in Guantanamo Bay was against principles of international law and that his conviction
was without any merit at all."

Adelaide-born Mr Hicks was 26 when he was captured by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance
in Afghanistan in late 2001. It believed he was fighting for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
network.

Mr Hicks was held in the US-run jail in Cuba until 2007, when he pleaded guilty to
providing material support for terrorism and was sent to Adelaide's Yatala Prison to serve
the rest of his seven-year sentence. He was released under a control order later that
year.

The 107-page document says Mr Hicks was beaten, sexual abused and drugged, and that
he was convicted on a statement of facts for which he never received any evidence.

Mr Saul said Australian officials "knew or should reasonably have known" of his client's
mistreatment while in US custody and had "encouraged and supported it" by failing to investigate
his credible allegations of torture.

The submission also calls on the government to abandon its Australian court case against
Mr Hicks over the proceeds from his tell-all memoir Guantanamo: My Journey,

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions wants to seize the money as the profits
of crime.

The book sold about 30,000 copies and is believed to have generated about $10,000 for Mr Hicks.

AAP lxs/jhp

KEYWORD: HICKS

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