Judge condemns Hicks' detention

DARWIN — On May 6, Northern Territory Supreme Court judge Brian Martin told the Darwin Press Club that no civilised society should have allowed David Hicks to be detained at Guantanamo Bay for four years.

"Whatever one might think about what David Hicks did or did not do — and we have no idea because evidence has not yet been presented — is it not totally foreign to our understanding of how a civilised community treats persons charged with offences to incarcerate the person for over four years in conditions to which David Hicks has been subjected?", Martin asked. According to the May 6 Australian, Martin added: "Why have our political leaders generally defended this treatment? Is it because David Hicks represents an unpopular cause and political purposes and interests prevail in the minds of our leaders?"

Dale Mills

From Green Left Weekly, May 10, 2006.

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From GLW issue 667