Guantanamo Bay chief prosecutor : "Hicks charge was 'political'

[Swagman]

Source: The Age


Hicks charge was 'political'
Chris Hammer
April 30, 2008

SUPPORTERS of David Hicks say revelations at Guantanamo Bay may be the first step in overturning his conviction for providing material support for terrorism.

The former chief prosecutor of the Guantanamo Bay trials, Colonel Morris Davis, has given startling evidence that he faced political pressure to prosecute Hicks, even though he did not want to proceed against him because the charges were not serious enough.

He said he had "inherited" the case from a previous prosecutor and would not otherwise have charged Hicks because he wanted to focus on more serious cases with the potential to secure 20-year prison sentences.

Hicks' lawyer, David McLeod, has told The Age he is confident that sooner or later either the US Supreme Court or the American political process will find the military commission system that convicted Hicks either unlawful or unsustainable.

"If the Supreme Court gets rid of the commissions, his conviction will go with it, and so will the proceeds-of-crime constraints," Mr McLeod said. It is also possible Hicks would then be in a position to seek compensation.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/hicks-charge-was-political/2008/04/29/1209234862002.html

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Day by day it's slowly falling apart and their crimes are being revealed.

[canetoad]

1. Geez, you're up early Swagman!

Just read this in the Age, particularly interested in the possibility of 'proceeds of crime' constraints being dropped. Maybe at last we will hear exactly what happened to him in the torture camp.