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CANBERRA - Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks should be back home by the end of the year, whether he is acquitted or not, under a deal struck with the United States, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says.
Mr Downer says the US has agreed to allow Hicks to serve
his sentence in an Australian jail if found guilty of attempted murder and supporting terrorism.
Mr Downer would not comment on whether the government was trying to get Hicks home before this year's election, expected to be held in October or November, to neutralise voter disquiet over his treatment.
But he said that if Hicks' trial went ahead as US authorities had promised, the Adelaide man could be home this year.
"If the trial proceeds and proceeds quickly ... then it'll be possible to get Mr Hicks back to Australia by the end of the year, either to serve in a prison in Australia or of course just to be released, depending on the result of the trial," Mr Downer told the Nine Network.
Hicks, 31, was captured among Taleban forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and has since been held by the US military in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba without trial.
Hicks is facing charges of attempted murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support from terrorism. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.
His lengthy detention without charge has led to growing public and government backbench disquiet and attracted the sympathy of businessman Dick Smith, who has given $60,000 ($68,618) to the Free David Hicks campaign.
"I feel sick because of David Hicks," Mr Smith told the Nine Network.
A digitally enhanced image released today projecting the effects of five years in detention shows a haggard-looking Hicks.
He still has not been formally charged but Mr Downer said the government was trying to ensure the trial went ahead as quickly as possible.
"Assuming that the trial goes ahead on schedule, whether David Hicks is convicted or he is acquitted, and we obviously make no judgment about that, that he should be able to come home to Australia before the end of the year," he said.
"If he's convicted, we've made an arrangement with the Americans which was confirmed to me 10 days ago by the secretary of defence Robert Gates that David Hicks will be able to serve his sentence or the remainder of his sentence in Australia.
"If he's acquitted, of course, he will be allowed to go."
Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland said the government was only acting because an election was coming up this year.
"Given the government's record to date on Hicks, they seem to be responding because we're coming up to an election and there's public outrage," Mr McClelland told ABC TV.
But Treasurer Peter Costello said Hicks could have killed Australian soldiers had he not been captured by coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Australia has steadfastly refused to ask for Hicks to be released from Guantanamo because he could not be tried for his alleged crimes in Australia.
- AAP
