Hicks lawyer gagged by breach claims Ian Munro
March 8, 2007
DAVID Hicks' military defence lawyer has been gagged by claims that he breached military rules in his sweeping public defence of his client.
Major Michael Mori refused to comment on Hicks' case yesterday as the Law Council of Australia launched a scathing attack on the Howard Government's legal justification for allowing the Australian terror suspect to be tried by the United States.
Council president Tim Bugg said Hicks was facing the prospect of a trial before an "ad hoc military tribunal" in breach of the Geneva Convention. Hicks should be released and returned to Australia, he said.
Mr Bugg said that if the US Supreme Court had not intervened, Hicks might already have been convicted, with the consent of the Australian Government, on charges that had since been dropped.
Major Mori's spirited public defence of his client prompted prosecutor Colonel Morris Davis to suggest he had breached the US Military Code by saying the military commission system was deliberately designed to facilitate convictions.
Although Colonel Davis has said he knows of no one planning "to investigate, discipline or prosecute Major Mori for anything Hicks-related", Major Mori has said the claims left him with a significant conflict of interest. He also said he would have to seek legal advice, but refused yesterday to clarify his position, saying he could not comment.
Meanwhile, Hicks' defence team will learn by the end of this month whether the latest bid to challenge the detention of inmates at Guantanamo Bay will be considered by the US Supreme Court. If so, Hicks' trial could be delayed further.
Mr Bugg said the only charge still levelled at Hicks — that of providing support for terrorism — was created last year, cobbled together from offences in US domestic criminal law.
"US authorities have, after five years of military detention, essentially conceded that Mr Hicks' alleged activities in Afghanistan in 2001 were not illegal at the time," Mr Bugg said.