Pressure is mounting on the federal Coalition government to bring David Hicks home. On January 2, the Australian Defence Force director of military prosecutions, Brigadier Lyn McDade, described the treatment of Hicks as "abominable". A week or so later, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and PM John Howard said that they were concerned that Hicks had still not been tried, but that they were certain he would be charged in the next few weeks.
This has done nothing to dampen growing and broad concern about Hicks' welfare and for justice to be done. On January 11, the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners, including Hicks, at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, protests were held in several cities across Australia as part of an international action to close the torture camp down.
Some 200 people in Melbourne, 150 in Sydney and 50 in Newcastle noisily demanded the immediate return of Hicks to Australia and the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison.
The Melbourne protest took place outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and was organised by Civil Rights Defence (CRD). Greens MLC Colleen Hartland, Brian Walters from Liberty Victoria and Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou addressed the rally. In Sydney, the demonstration at Town Hall was organised by the Sydney Stop the War Coalition and addressed by former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib, the NSW Greens' John Kaye, Pip Hinman from the Socialist Alliance, and Patrick Langosch, an activist from Sydney University's Students Against War and Racism. At the Newcastle rally, organised by Socialist Alliance activists, a figure in an orange jumpsuit — hooded, manacled and clutching cell bars — symbolised Guantanamo inmates, and a large greeting card, to be sent to Major Michael Mori for forwarding to Hicks, was signed by many of the participants and passers-by.
While feigning concern for Hicks, Ruddock has gone in to bat for the new, problematic US military commissions. In an opinion piece published by the Age on January 7, Ruddock argued that Hicks could not simply be brought back to Australia, and why the new US military commissions are "fair".
On January 11, the Age ran former chief justice Alastair Nicholson's reply which slammed the attorney-general's argument that the commissions contained "safeguards". Nicholson pointed out that the new commissions do allow evidence to be obtained under coercion including: stress positions, extreme temperatures, hooding, the deprivation of clothing and "water-boarding" where an individual is immobilised while water is poured over their face to simulate drowning and produces a severe gag reflex, making the subject believe their death is imminent.
Ruddock asserted that the US position was that a detainee could not be repatriated unless he or she would be prosecuted, and that this was not possible under Australian law. Nicholson pointed out that this was incorrect as several British detainees had been repatriated and not prosecuted. Like Hicks, they had been declared eligible for trial by the military commissions. According to Nicholson, Howard could repatriate Hicks if he had the political will to do so.
For five years Hicks has been imprisoned without trial, the cruel regimen leading to his physical and mental deterioration. US authorities recently refused to allow Melbourne psychiatrist Professor Paul Mullen to assess Hicks' mental state. Neither Howard nor Ruddock did anything to intervene.
The Coalition government supports the Bush administration's violations of human rights and legal principles at Guantanamo Bay. This makes Howard, Ruddock and foreign minister Alexander Downer complicit in a crime against one of Australia's citizens.
As Geoffrey Robertson QC said last August: "There must come a point at which Australian law officers who willfully authorise or approve an unfair and irregular trial of an Australian citizen become complicit in a grave breach of international law."
Brian Walters characterised Canberra's treatment of Hicks as a violation of "Australian values". Walters said that when Hicks' lawyers challenged the rules under which Guantanamo operated, Hicks was held in solitary confinement for eight months in a bid to force him to drop the case.
Walters told the protest that Hicks is again being pressured to plead guilty in a plea bargain; he has twice previously refused to do so. "Here we have the spectacle of an Australian Attorney-General urging an Australian citizen, entitled to the presumption of innocence, to plead guilty. This is to use the criminal treatment David has received to blackmail him into forfeiting his rights."
Walters went on to describe the "persuasion" being meted out. "Since being held at Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks has been beaten, subjected to sleep deprivation — loud music, bright lights, intense heat, intense cold — and repeated lengthy interrogations. He has endured years of solitary confinement with sensory deprivation. Family letters that get past the censors have all expressions of love and support blacked out."
CRD spokesperson Shannon Price drew the connection between the government's dereliction of its duty in the Hicks case with the mistreatment of Jack Thomas and the 13 Melbourne men who are soon due to appear in court on "terrorism" offences.
Thomas was not found to be a terrorist at his trial, yet he is still being pursued under the new "anti-terror" laws, and faces a retrial. In the case of the "Melbourne 13", while the sensational allegations of an imminent terrorist attack have evaporated, the case rests on the fact that because the men held discussions about a range of ideas they constitute a terrorist organisation. These men are effectively being accused of thought crime.
As the Labor Party helped get these new "anti-terror" laws passed, it is pertinent to ask whether, under the new leadership of Kevin Rudd, the party will push for a repeal of the law under which Thomas is being wrongly prosecuted? Why is Labor supporting "control orders" that allow people not convicted of any offence to be held under house arrest?
CRD opposes control orders, and calls for Hicks' immediate return. CRD is planning to organise vigils every Thursday, from 4-7pm, at the Victorian Department of Foreign Affairs at Casseldon Place, corner of Lonsdale and Spring Streets, Melbourne.
[Colin Mitchell is an activist in CRD. Visit <http://www.civilrightsdefence.org>. Additional reporting by Lee West.]