Guantanamo ruling applauded

2004-06-29 09:56

Sydney - Two suspected Australian terrorists may challenge their detention by US authorities following a landmark US Supreme Court ruling, their lawyers said on Tuesday.

In a major blow to the Bush administration the court ruled in a 6-3 decision on Monday that Americans and foreigners held as "enemy combatants" at the US Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba cannot be detained without some right of appeal.

Adelaide-born Muslim convert David Hicks, 28, who was captured while fighting with Taliban forces in Afghanistan, and Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib, seized by security officers in Pakistan, have been in detention for two-and-a-half years.

Hicks was recently charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy and is expected to go before a military commission later this year.

His Australian lawyer, Adelaide-based Stephen Kenny, described the ruling as "a very significant step on a long road to justice".

Kenny said it meant the detention and trial can be challenged in the US courts and the ruling, which could not be appealed, would also have a major impact on the military commission.

"Essentially everything that now happens within the commission will be subject to potential challenge in the US courts," he said. "It also means that the military authorities no longer have a place where they can treat people as they wish."

Hicks' father Terry, who with an Australian television station recently retraced David's steps through Pakistan and Afghanistan, said it was "a great day for justice".

Habib's Australian lawyer, Stephen Hopper, said in Sydney: "Now this decision's come down it is open for us to launch an action to examine the merits of the detention of Mamdouh Habib and that's what we intend to do.

"Now we can challenge the merits of Mr Habib's detention in a proper forum, in a court where the rules of evidence apply, where procedural fairness applies and where there is an appeal process."

However, Prime Minister John Howard said the key finding of the US court was that the detention was lawful and it did not alter the government's position, which supported the detention and prosecution of the two alleged terrorists.

"My understanding is that the American Supreme Court has ruled that the detention has been lawful and that it's lawful not only in relation to American citizens but also in relation to foreigners," Howard told the Nine Network.

- SAPA