Britain blasts US on inmates
By Annabel Crabb, Canberra The Age July 09, 2003
As a row erupted between Britain and the United States over proposed military trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, Prime Minister John Howard yesterday backed Washington, saying the Federal Government was satisfied with arrangements for Australian detainee David Hicks.

But Australian lawyers expressed alarm at the proposed seven-member tribunal system under which Hicks, of Adelaide, is to be tried.

The tribunal is required to have just one member with legal training, the rules of evidence do not apply and Hicks will have no right to confer privately with his lawyers or appeal if found guilty.

According to a military briefing on the US Department of Defence website, there are also no guarantees that Hicks will be released if he is found not guilty.

The Law Council of Australia said its secretary-general, Michael Lavarch, was preparing a submission to Attorney-General Daryl Williams expressing concern that Australians being tried in the US were not being accorded rights comparable to those of Americans.

But Mr Howard said he had been advised by Mr Williams that the proposed treatment of Hicks was satisfactory, as he was being accorded the presumption of innocence and would be granted access to lawyers.

"(The Americans) regard these people as enemy combatants," Mr Howard said. "I mean, bear in mind, the claim is - and he acknowledges it - that he trained with al-Qaeda."

Joe Margulies, an American lawyer representing Hicks and other suspects, told the ABC that the US had not yet indicated the nature of charges against his client. "I certainly don't know, as a fact, that David participated in any of this training," he said.

In London, The Guardian yesterday quoted British Foreign Office Minister Chris Mullin expressing "strong reservations" about what would happen to two British citizens, Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi, who are among the six Guantanamo Bay detainees bound for military trials. "If there is any question at all that the death penalty may be sought in these cases, we would raise the strongest possible objections," Mr Mullin said.

Conservatives in Britain's Parliament also criticised the US stance. Former defence minister Nicholas Soames said: "All America's friends, while understanding the very difficult and sensitive issues that surround these matters, nevertheless regret deeply the harm that is being done to America's cause by their behaviour in this matter."

Mr Williams was not available for an interview yesterday. But a spokeswoman, referring to the suggestion that Hicks might not be released if found not guilty, said: "As Mr Hicks has not been charged as yet, we are not going to speculate on what might happen should he be charged and then subsequently found to be innocent or guilty."

The spokeswoman told The Age this week that the death penalty issue had been a major part of the Australian Government's negotiations with the US. "Our expectation is that Mr Hicks or (fellow Australian detainee Mamdouh) Habib would not... be sentenced to death," she said.

It is believed that Canberra has been assured by the US that Australians will be treated like other non-American citizens facing military tribunals. This would mean that any concessions Britain was able to elicit for its citizens would flow to Hicks.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw formally complained about the process to US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the weekend, but Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has no plans to follow suit. "We believe the process will be fair and transparent," his spokesman said yesterday.

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